


Horns and Wings

by Mistressaq



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Blood, F/F, Frottage, Lesbians, Making Out, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-04-27 01:42:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14414946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mistressaq/pseuds/Mistressaq
Summary: Twenty-one year old Fine Arts Student Alaska wakes up early one morning to find she's growing horns! That same morning, Katya wakes up  to an ache in her back. By the end of the day, she's sprouted wings! Neither knows what is going on, or why they are drawn to each other. Their only guides are Sasha Velour, a premed-turned-art student, and her straight-talking dancer girlfriend, Shea.





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic I started last July back on AQ that I'm bringing over(because it didnt get enough notes and also i think ao3 would like it). Thanks to dottie and eevee, who each resuscitated this fic at different points in time.

Alaska awoke with a pounding headache unlike any she’d had before. She knew migraines, she knew the pain caused by hangovers, hunger, dehydration and stress. That was an echoey feeling, her body sending pain signals to the wrong place to get her attention. This was a sharp, stabbing pain like there was a knife under her skin slowly digging itself out of her skull.  
She pressed her hands against the sides of her head and a memory cropped up. Late night classic horror movies played on TV during October on the local station. She remembered the original Frankenstein movie. She remembered that the monster had steel bolts coming out of either side of his forehead. When Alaska stumbled out of bed, hunched over and groaning to look at herself in the mirror, she half expected to see steel bolts coming out of her head.

There were zit-like, raised points on the surface of her skin where the pain was. But as she gingerly caressed the bumps, it was obvious these weren’t pimples. Not like any she’d ever seen. Pimples had a yellow-white pus hardened dome surface. What was beneath her fingers now was blood red under the skin, and stretched thin over their peaks, completely symmetrical. They were hard like bone, and when Alaska pressed down on the tip of the pyramid on her right side, the skin ripped open and a rivulet of blood the width of a hair escaped from the wound. There was the sting of the skin, yes, but the pain that had been her rude awakening? Relieved in an instant. Alaska sighed in relief and was quick to free her left side as well. 

Alaska opened her door only a crack, just to check that the hallway was clear. It was a straight shot from her bedroom to the linen closet, but she would need to go to the bathroom from there. If her roommates saw the blood running down her face… well, Roxxxy had a thing about blood and Detox would immediately try and rush her to the ER. Okay, maybe she wouldn’t, but Alaska would at least have to explain why she was bleeding and she really didn’t know how to have that conversation. 

Thankfully, she didn’t have to. Alaska stealthed into the bathroom, wetted a towel and went to work wiping away the blood. The flow had already stopped, and she could get a better look at what exactly her head was giving birth to. 

Upon closer inspection, Alaska’s forehead pyramids were rigid, the texture and feel of old baked clay bricks. She pushed back the surrounding skin like cuticles and found that they were about the width of her pinkie. No matter how much she scrubbed at them, the growths remained a burnt blood red. She picked at them, but her nails bent back without making a dent against the foreign things. She didn’t seem to have feeling in the growths either. _How could my body do this_? 

Mysterious dermatological issues aside, Alaska had to be in class in an hour. She grabbed a couple of Band-Aids, covered the problematic areas and swept her long blonde hair over the sides of her face, then she pulled on a hoodie, just to be safe. College was nothing compared to high school as far as harassment for appearances, but if her friends saw what was under the bandages, Alaska doubted she’d ever hear the end of it from them. 

She only half-listened to Professor Michaels’ lecture, letting her laptop’s recording and transcription application do the work for her. Usually, she was a diligent student, taking in every word like a good little academic sponge- but then again, she usually didn’t have fucking _horns_ growing out of her skull. She figured she’d earned this time to be used for research anyways -- she had an A in this class. So as the professor droned on about the nature of the world, Alaska Googled ‘human horns’. She found a shallow wikipedia article under ‘cutaneous horns’ that said essentially, “it could be cancer, or it could be not cancer, or it could BECOME cancer in the future’. 

Something about it didn’t feel right though, and not just the nauseating images that came up when she plugged in the words ‘cutaneous horns’ into the search engine. It seemed that cutaneous horns grew on the skin itself, kind of like a mole on steroids, but Alaska’s protrusions came up from _under_ the skin. A dermatology website said they were cone-shaped, but she could feel the sharp edges of the pyramid under the Band-Aid. Another discrepancy -- the same site said the lesions were red/pink or the same color as the surrounding skin. A biopsy was recommended, but she was a damn college student. She didn’t have money to go see a dermatologist. Besides, reading this much about lesions and skimming photos of skin cancer was seriously churning her stomach. 

Alaska closed her laptop and looked for something to distract herself from the skin cancer images still burned into the back of her eyelids. She’d been so into her research that she’d completely lost track of time and she was now one of only two people left still seated in the lecture hall. She gathered her things and was about to head down the main walkway and out when she heard the only other girl still in her seat let out a choked whimper. 

Alaska slowly made her way down the aisle of seats toward the blonde girl. She was bent forward, the balls of her hands clutching the sides of her face, tangling her hair. Her elbows stuck into her thighs, and Alaska noticed where tears had fallen on her short red skirt, the material was darker. She wondered for a moment if she should even approach the poor soul. Would Alaska want to be bothered by a stranger if she was crying into her own lap after a film theory class? 

Alaska gently hummed a “Hey there,” in the crying girls general direction. She got no response, only seeing the girl’s shoulders shudder and three more dark spots appear on the skirt. Oh, she hated seeing someone in pain and she would hate herself all day if she thought there was something she could have done for the girl and didn’t. 

Alaska tapped her lightly on the shoulder. The girl looked up. She caught a flash of a light blue eye, swollen-rimmed and melting her reddened cheek with heavy mascara. “Oh,” croaked a cried-out voice. She turned away and started fiddling with her bag, packing it up, pulling at zippers. 

Alaska opened her mouth, then realized what she was going to say and thought better of it. _Are you okay? Obviously the fuck not, moron_. Instead, Alaska went for the more courteous “Is there anything I can help with?” 

The blonde girl made a noise somewhere between a scoff and a hum. Her head bobbed, though she kept her face hidden. “Probably not, to be honest.” Her voice was tight. “Slept through the end of class, huh?” she gave Alaska a sad side-smile. 

“A guy?” asked Alaska, not letting her new friend change the subject. 

The other girl gave a sad chuckle and shook her head. “No, it’s not that.” She threw her head back and gave another side-glance, as if looking at Alaska head-on would make her face less melted-clown-looking. She shrugged. “They can’t hurt you if you don’t catch feelings.” Alaska shrugged, unsure of how to respond. Her phone went off, an alarm telling her to get off her ass and head to her next class before DuJour locked out the tardies. The blonde girl took Alaska’s looking at her phone as an opportunity to head out alone, but Alaska ran up behind her. 

“Hey!” she extended her hand for the girl to shake. “I’m Alaska.” 

She gingerly took Alaska’s hand, her own was covered in mascara from all the times she’d tried to wipe away the tears, but Alaska didn’t seem to notice or care. “Katya,” said the blonde, before nodding and heading out the door. She left in the direction of the student parking lot, on the opposite side of campus from the Arts building. Alaska wouldn’t be able to get away with following Katya to make sure she was okay after everything, but she sent up a silent prayer to Allah or the universe or the giant turtle who carried the world on his back, that the pretty girl would stop crying soon. 

_____ 

In some sense, Alaska’s prayers were answered. Katya stopped crying, and started screaming. 

She’d surveyed the parking lot as she walked out to her car. Once Katya determined she was alone, she allowed a series of whimpers and curses to escape her lips. She’d woken up with this ache in her back. Assuming she had just slept in an awkward position, and that the pain would subside once she got her day started and stretched out her muscles, Katya had ignored it. Instead of improving, the pain had only gotten worse. 

Pressure thrummed in her back, between her shoulder blades. Every movement of her neck, her arms, her spine exacerbated the pain in ways she hadn’t previously thought possible. Katya had lost time in class, actually passing out because it hurt so much. She was surprised she hadn’t been sick yet, given how much pain she was in. And that girl Nebraska -- or was it Alabama -- had stalled her escape. She’d barely been able to put sentences together in front of the hooded tree of a girl. Now Katya lay crumpled on her hands and knees in the back of her old VW bug. She let out guttural cry after moan after string of swears that would have put George Carlin out of business. 

As Katya panted like a woman in labor, she knew she couldn’t do this on her own anymore. Her mind was scattered -- or at least more scattered than usual -- and she struggled to put thoughts together. She needed help. 9-1-1? Fuck, she hated doctors, and even the thought of the ER, beds full of sick, possibly contagious people, waiting in this pain for hours, not knowing what was going on or when someone was going to tell you some bit of information for you to stress about in your 1500 dollar bed that you can’t leave -- Katya shook her head. No hospitals. 

Another scream tore up her throat as she arched her back. It felt like she had an actual chestburster alien from the original Alien movie, him and his twin brother, mole-tunneling their way out of her back. She gingerly reached around behind her, hiking up her shirt, to feel around for whatever was coming out of her. 

Next to her shoulder blades, on either side of her spine were two raised lumps. Each was about the size of a fist and when she squeezed the sides of one, it shuddered like it was full of electricity. 

The skin was stretched so tight over the lumps it reminded Katya of her dad’s scleroderma. Pulling her hand away, Katya knew her top had to come off-- it was just too many layers over the painful alien growths. She didn’t know how, but she knew they needed air. When the top was off, she rested her forehead on the back of her arm. Tears ran down the sides of her face. She controlled her breathing to try and cope with the pain. 

_I need help, she thought_. No hospitals, that she’d established. The school didn’t have that big of a nursing program and she certainly didn’t know anybody in it. Who could she possibly call on that would know what to do with a sharp object? Katya pushed herself up onto her heels so she could look around the parking lot to try and gather ideas. 

Class must have just let out, as there was a sudden parade of twenty-odd students headed to their cars from the school buildings. One fashionably bald head in particular caught her eye. Katya swallowed. Sasha Velour had been a one night stand a while back -- when she needed a place to crash so she could hide from her landlord. She’d been pre-med, on all kinds of scholarships. She had a bright future. And she also had a secret, which Katya had managed to get her to reveal thanks to a couple of drinks and her excellent people skills. Sasha hated being premed. All she really wanted to be was an artist. 

_“You must think that’s dumb,” she had said without looking Katya in the eye._

_Katya had felt a pull at her heart from how honest the girl was being. She’d traced a line from one of Sasha’s shoulders to the other and back again. “My opinion doesn’t matter,” she’d said._

_Sasha had looked back at her curiously. That clearly wasn’t the reaction she usually got when she told people she wanted to stop trying to become a successful doctor in favor of making a career as a starving artist. Katya explained “It’s all well and good for me to tell you what you already know: that the medical field is more secure, that you’ll be financially stable and basically guaranteed employment from before you graduate med school until you retire with a handsome husband and a couple of fat kids in a paid-off house in Nevada with enough land to run a ranch on the side_.” 

_Katya paused, making sure Sasha heard what she was saying. “But it’s not my life. It’s your life, Sash. And if you think that doing performance art pieces to an audience of hipsters in Williamsburg is what you see yourself doing, if you believe you’ll be happier doing that than cramming your brain full of the names of the layers of tissue in the esophagus? Then I don’t have to tell you what the right decision is for you.” Sasha had nodded. Tilted her head back to stave off the tears_. 

_Katya knew what it was to feel like everybody else was making decisions for you. In an effort to make choices of her own, she had made some bad ones. Hell, bad decisions were the reasons she was spending time in an apartment that didn’t belong to her with the pretense of banging the very co-ed she was counselling_. 

Katya opened the car door and took in a breath, ready to call out to her now. That night a few months back things had gotten uncomfortably deep. They had had sex, yeah, but it was more of a way to keep them from talking than anything. A way of proving to themselves that it was just like any other hookup. That the conversations had never happened. And no conversation had happened since. 

“Sasha!” cried Katya, making sure none of her acquaintances friends saw that she was topless. She raised a hand above the other cars in the lot. “Over here! I need to talk to you!” 

The art student nodded to her friends and dutifully walked over. She winced when she noticed Katya’s lack of clothes. “Actually, Katya, I’m flattered but I have a girlfriend now, so,” Sasha started to turn on her heel. 

“Wait!” Katya’s voice was desperate. Sasha turned. “Sasha, I need your help.” 

_Fuck, that physically hurt to say_. 

With what?” she rested her hand on her hip but came no closer. 

“You switched to an art major, right?” the question was just a formality. Sasha’s switch hadn’t been just in paperwork. Her entire essence changed. She dyed all her hair, shaved it off and started wearing different clothes. She moved out of her apartment and into an artsy co-op. 

“Yeah, thanks, by the way, for the advice,” said Sasha. 

Katya shook her head; the movement made her back twinge. “Don’t mention it. Do you have an X-acto knife?” 

Sasha put a hand on her bag. “I do, actually, do you want to borrow it?” 

“No, I--” Katya bit her lip. “I need you to do something for me, do you have a class after this?” _So help me God I am gonna make this bitch late to class if I have to._

“No, actually I don’t,” said Sasha. “What’s up?” 

Katya sighed. “Come inside,” she said and turned around to lie chest-down in the backseat of her car. 

“What, why?” asked the art student as she made her way to the side door. Katya heard Sasha gasp when she caught sight of what was on her back. “Katya!” 

“I know,” she said from the seat. “It looks like the biggest case of herpes known to man, but Sash, I promise…” She abandoned the thought. She couldn’t actually promise anything. “Look, just dig out your art knife and Zorro my ass. Whatever’s under my skin needs to come out and I can’t do it myself.” 

“Katya, I don’t think--” 

She heard Sasha moving away from the car. Before the bald girl could make it a full step away Katya had her by the wrist. “Please,” she begged. Their eyes met. Sasha saw just how much pain Katya was in. How desperate she must be to ask for help from someone she only knew for a few hours several months ago. And Sasha had never been able to say no to those eyes. 

“Do you have a towel?” asked Sasha as she dug around for her art supplies. 

Katya grabbed a wad of cloth from the floor of the car. “I have this.” 

Sasha’s face screwed up. “That can’t be clean.” 

Katya sniffed the material. “Old, but not too offensive. And I didn’t ask for sterile -- you’re doing surgery with an X-acto knife, here.” 

Sasha sighed, but nodded. Having found the tool, she held it up to the light, trying to see if anything was still stuck on the blade. Really she was just trying to delay the inevitable. Since when had she signed up to maim her one-night-stands? 

The overhead light in the backseat was on, shedding dim light on Katya’s abused skin. Spider veins wove their way around the lumps on her back, avoiding whatever was under her skin. The longer she stared at her back, the more Sasha could swear that something was moving beneath the skin. 

Katya jiggled a nervous leg and pressed her face into her arm. “Are you almost ready?” 

Sasha bit her lip. She didn’t really think she’d ever be ready. But Katya wouldn’t have called her if she had anyone else to turn to. Katya was counting on her. Sasha leaned down and plotted out a course of action. Go around the edges of the oblong lumps like a C-section? Or straight down the middle? Maybe making a start in the exact center and working her way out like a spiral was the way to go. “Do you have a preference of how?” she asked. 

Katya fidgeted anxiously. “Just get it over with, every second you waste I’m in pain.” 

Sasha put her knife to the top of the lump on Katya’s right side. She felt Katya tense beneath her, saw her muscles clench as she tried not to scream. Like a Band-Aid she told herself before she quickly drew the blade down to the base, opening up the skin like she was undoing a zipper. To her relief, when she was done with the one side, Katya sighed, relaxing. She didn’t let Sasha sit back for too long. “Go on, do the other now.” 

Sasha nodded. She wiped away beads of sweat from her forehead before she quickly opened the second lump in the same fashion as the first. Sasha didn’t have long to admire her handiwork, however, as she found herself thrown against the door of the car by a giant pillow. Katya shrieked at the weird sensation of something exploding out of her back, and the backseat of her VW was suddenly full of pearlescent feathers. 

Katya reached out and grabbed at a chunk of feathers, only to find that they were attached… to her. She turned and the feathers turned with her, smacking Sasha against the door again for good measure. “Oomf,” said Sasha. 

“Sorry.” Katya grabbed the other side of the feather parade and tried to keep both away from Sasha. 

The art student stared at Katya. Her blonde hair was matted with sweat, but light bounced off it like a mirror. Her sky blue eyes were wide with surprise, her mouth hung open revealing blindingly white teeth. That wasn’t where the Biblical imagery even started, and Sasha had to shake her head to convince herself she wasn’t dreaming. The unwieldy masses of feathers were anchored to a single appendage on either side, which had sprung forth from Katya’s back. Now she sat small below the masses of feathers that were about three times the size of her. 

It was so cliche it hurt to think it, but Sasha couldn’t say it any other way. “You’re an angel.” Katya was holding a wing in each hand, touching the proof, but she shook her head. “That’s not possible.” 

Sasha looked around for another witness that wasn’t there. She and Katya were the only ones seeing this. “Do you have another explanation, End of Evangelion?” 

“What?” 

“End of --” Sasha rolled her eyes. “It’s an anime from the 90’s. There’s a topless girl who sprouts wings, nevermind you only watch bad movies.” 

“Hey!” Katya kicked playfully at Sasha. When she did so her wings batted at the art student as well. They both stared at the massive things. They seemed to have a mind of their own. 

Katya swallowed hard and pulled her knees to her chest as she stared at the ceiling. Her wings fluttered little muscles and she had no idea how they were doing that. She had even less of an idea how she could make them stop. Her eyes watered for the hundredth time that morning. “What am I supposed to do?” 

Sasha slowly made her way over to her, keeping eyes on the wings that pressed themselves against the roof as if awaiting approval from a territorial pet. Katya’s feathers ruffled themselves, but let Sasha approach. “Well,” she started, looking deep into Katya’s glistening eyes. “Let’s start small. Okay?” Katya nodded. Sasha reached out her hand as if to pet Katya’s shoulder, but just let her hand stay in the air, a few inches away, slightly scared to touch. “Are you still in pain?” 

Katya pursed her lips but shook her head. “No.” She flexed her shoulders, the wings following along, like when you try and bend only one of your toes and the two surrounding toes come with anyway. 

“Good,” said Sasha in a soft voice. Katya was obviously freaked, and the worst thing to do when someone is freaked is to freak out yourself. “Now if you’re in, I want to do a little… experiment.” 

Katya leaned back, her feathers fluttering with discomfort. 

“Don’t worry,” Sasha cooed, still keeping her voice light and soft. “I’m not going to hurt you.” 

Katya relaxed, but only a little. “Close your eyes.” 

Against her inner paranoia, Katya obeyed. She squeezed her eyes shut, suddenly very aware of how warm the inside of her VW had gotten while sitting in the parking lot. 

Sasha settled in on the backseat and breathed slowly. She had an idea -- she wasn’t sure it would work but it was something. “Okay,” she said. “Katya, I want you to focus on your breathing. Breathing in on a count of four, holding for a count of seven, and--” 

“Out on a count of eight,” Katya finished, cracking one eye open. “I _started_ that yoga club, remember?” 

"Then you know what to do.” She smiled. “Close that eye back up and find your center.” 

Katya took in a deep breath to start. She still had a lot of tension, especially in her shoulders. While she followed the breathing to block out the thoughts that still bounced in and out of her head, Katya imagined her worries being filled with helium. She pictured them as stones encapsulated by bubbles that lifted into the sky and out of view. 

Meanwhile, Sasha was keeping track of what Katya’s wings did when she calmed down. Since the giant dovelike wings mirrored her emotional state when she was scared or felt threatened, she wondered if the wings might fold back down and out of view when Katya meditated. As a minute passed and the blonde girl grew calmer and calmer with each breath, Sasha watched the feathers closely. 

When they’d first erupted from beneath Katya’s skin, the wings had been twice, maybe three times as long as she was. Now as their master meditated, they unruffled, laying back down like the fur of a cat coming down from attack mode. The wings continued retracting until they were about the length between Katya’s neck and pelvis. Sensing this was as demure as the new additions were going to get, Sasha had another idea. 

“Okay,” she said, her voice low and calm. “You can open your eyes whenever you feel ready. I want to tell you that you should really stay calm, and keep that zen as long as you can, okay?” Katya nodded slightly, a ripple spreading out through her feathers. When she opened her eyes, Sasha seemed pleased and determined. “Your face tells me that egghead of yours hatched a plan.” 

Sasha chuckled, still keeping quiet. She half thought sudden movement or loud noises would spook Katya’s wings back to full scale. “So here’s what I’m thinking,” she said. “I have a studio -- an art studio. I share it with some other students, but they never use it. I actually think they dropped out.” 

Katya nodded patiently. “Okay.” 

“It’s got a lot of wide open space,” continued Sasha. “Certainly more than that apartment of yours.” 

Katya shook off the urge to defend her living space. “You want me to come to your place? Didn’t you say you had a girlfriend?” she questioned. “Will she be okay with that?” 

Sasha reached out a hand to Katya, which she took. “I will explain everything to Shea in good time,” she said. “But right now my priority is giving you space to stretch your wings.” 

“Literally.” Katya giggled and her feathers shuddered. 

Katya handed over her keys and let Sasha drive them to the arts quarter of campus. Anxiety stretched her wings wide again when she realized she would have to somehow get from the parking lot to Sasha’s studio in this state. 

“Relax,” said Sasha. “There’s a basement-level car garage below the studios. Nobody has to see us.” 

Katya exhaled and tried to push away the niggling worry whether she would ever be able to go out in public again. 

“Relax,” Sasha repeated. “You don’t have to worry, Katya, we’ll figure this all out together, okay?” 

Katya chuckled at the situation. A previous trick was helping her out when she really didn’t have to. She watched Sasha’s head as she looked both ways before pulling into a garage. How had she gained such a good quality friend in less than an hour? If all her old hookups were as generous as Sasha Velour, she needed to get back in touch with a lot of people. 


	2. Synchronize

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasha helps Katya control her wings, and Alaska notices some more changes. When the sun goes down, things get… strange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _bol'shaya ptitsa_ means ‘big bird’ according to google translate. Also I don't know if this qualifies, but fair warning that this chapter mentions things that might qualify as self injury but it's iffy and just be warned bc it's not time to add that content warning yet.

Sasha’s studio was fucking huge. It seemed to Katya the place was a converted parking garage, given the concrete floor and lingering smell of petrol beneath the smell of acrylic and spraypaint. It was obvious Sasha had tried to cover as much space as possible with art and inspiration. Katya shook her head, her wings tilting along as if prompted by a phantom muscle. “You’ve only been an art student for five months?” asked Katya skeptically.

Sasha smiled demurely. “It’s a little messy but,” she paused to shove a tracing desk toward the wall and free up more space in the middle of the studio. “It’ll do.” 

Katya swallowed. She was still awkwardly standing in the stairwell. There was just so much pretty art in there, so many hours of work and passion. Katya grabbed a bundle of pure white feathers, pulling them down toward her chest. She could already imagine her ten foot wingspan lashing out, knocking Sasha’s hard work off the walls, tearing shit up, ruining everything. Katya chewed her lip until she tasted blood, waiting in the doorway like a vampire without invitation. Her fidgety wings battered the cinder block walls. 

Sasha kept pushing things out of the way. Easels caught on newspapers stuck to the floor with paint and spray adhesive. Katya recognized paint and glue and the common art supplies, but her brows contracted at the sight of a pastel sewing machine next to a wire mannequin. There were bundles of fabric stuffed around the body of the mannequin, but it looked half-finished. She couldn't imagine it to be true of anything coming from Sasha’s hands but… it was ugly. 

Must be the lighting. Katya swallowed and looked up. There wasn’t a huge amount of space between her and the ceiling, probably just enough for two of her to stack on top of each other. The lighting fixtures were dim, and though there were windows on the far side of the studio, the glass was covered by movie posters (Schindler's List and Caligula, interesting choices, Sasha) and trash bags. Katya eyed up Sasha and wondered from what she could possibly need to hide. 

“Oh, what, do angels need to be invited in? Quit lurking, Kat.” 

Katya winced. Spontaneously grown dove wings or not, she was no angel. Also, Sasha just called her ‘Kat’. Had they really gone from barely acknowledging each other to nickname tier friendship in little over an hour? Nevertheless, Katya let herself into Sasha’s place. The walls were almost completely covered with everything from Oprah quotes to hand-drawn sketches, and a wide variety of photos. Pretty dresses, club kid fashion, magazine tear outs, quiet landscapes, amateur photos of world monuments and natural wonders -- Katya just couldn’t stop looking. There was too much to take in. Sasha said something from the other side of the room, but Katya hadn’t been listening. She turned to face the wall that led to the stairwell. And her jaw dropped. 

This wall wasn’t haphazardly plastered with color to keep creativity flowing, like the other three. The art on this wall wasn’t from filmmakers or facebook posts. This wasn’t a _wall_. Katya was staring at a _shrine_. 

Sasha reddened, going pink from her chin to her crown when she saw Katya looking. “Uh, this is… I can explain,” she said, her voice higher in pitch than Katya had ever thought Sasha’s baritone could go. 

There was a dragging sound behind her and Katya spun around to see that her wings had gone flat against her back, falling to the floor in amazement. Sasha had her hands folded under her chin, her lips pursed. For a moment Katya wondered if she maybe shouldn’t stare, maybe she was overstepping -- but no, Sasha had invited her in. 

Katya looked back to Sasha. “You don’t have to explain _anything_ ,” she assured her. “I only wish I could be this obsessed with someone. Is this the girlfriend?” 

“Yeah,” breathed Sasha. 

Katya quirked an eyebrow. “Does she know you’ve built her a personal shrine?” 

Sasha chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck. “Yeah. All this…” she waved at the monstrosity of one face and body in many outfits and positions, all hand-drawn by herself. “Started before I got the courage to ask her out. It wasn’t as,” Sasha made a sound in the back of her throat “as it is now, but it was still… pretty intense. It was a struggle, her convincing me to let her come over. I was so anxious she was gonna realize I’m a freaky stalker and run.” 

It was what Katya would have done. “But I guess she didn’t?” 

Sasha shook her head. “No, she… she loved it. The first thing she made me do was do a live sketch of her.” She took a single drawing between two fingers and pulled it off the blue tack keeping it on the wall. She held the drawing out to Katya, who stared open-mouthed at the piece. Shea Coulee, hard eyes, full lips pulled into a smirk, sat on a barely-defined sofa with one leg slung over one of the couch’s arms. She had a hand placed between her thighs to create some privacy. 

Katya managed to speak for the first time since really looking at the drawing. She still couldn’t pry her eyes away. “She’s naked.” 

Sasha chuckled, less comfortably than she had before and took the drawing back to return it to the wall. She scratched her bald head. “Yeah, I used that anime rule where if you don’t draw the nipples it’s not really nudity?” 

Katya tilted her head to one side. “That’s a rule?” 

“Yeah.” Sasha swallowed hard and looked away. “Also they pixelate their porn.” 

Katya choked on her own saliva. “What?” Sasha opened her mouth as if to repeat herself, but Katya held out a finger to silence her. “No, shut up. Why the fuck do you know so much weird shit about anime? First topless angel girl in End of Eaglehorn--” 

“End of Evangelion,” Sasha couldn’t help but correct her. “And don’t make fun, I had this roommate last year who was so obsessed with anime. That’s how I knew.” 

Katya shook her head. “And you, what, caught her watching pixelated porn?” 

Sasha grimaced. “Yeah. It’s super weird. It’s like watching Sims fuck, what’s the point?” She clapped her hands together and sashed to the middle of the studio. “Now,” she said, extending a hand. “Join me.” 

Katya slowly made her way over to Sasha, holding her wings in her hands to keep them somewhat still. Really trying not to move her wings was like trying not to move your tongue -- they were so powerful they just couldn’t keep still. Dismayed, Katya kept a slight distance from her friend. “I don’t know, man.” 

“Don’t know about what?” questioned Sasha, her hand still outstretched. 

Katya shrugged, tufts of feathers following the action. “What are we trying to do here?” She gathered more feathers in her hands, pulling them down. 

Sasha looked down in concentration. As Katya felt the other girl’s eyes examining her, she felt more naked than she had when she was actually, you know, naked, in front of Sasha. She still wasn’t wearing a shirt, though she had tried to clothe herself in the back of her VW on the way over. Her bra hadn’t fit around the massive dove wings sprouting from her back, and there wasn’t any hope for the shirt. “Do you, by any chance,” Katya started, insecure of how squeaky her voice sounded. “Do you have any like shirts that are… backless? I mean it’s not that I’m not proud of my tits, but your girlfriend could walk in at any minute and it’s kinda cold in here anyway.” 

Sasha had already crossed to the other side of the studio. Only now did Katya see that there was a clearly DIY-ed staircase on the far side of the room, leading to a little second floor. Sasha’s footfalls echoed as she pounded her way up the spruce stairs. Katya could almost see the structure shake. 

“Um, is that safe?” she asked. 

Sasha rolled her eyes. “Shea had that same question.” She kept talking even as she disappeared behind a painted plywood wall. “It might be rickety and cramped up here, and still smell like sawdust months after construction, but as long as we don’t sneak any baby elephants up the stairs they’ll be fine!” She stuck her bald head back out. “Plus, who suggested surgery without proper disinfectant or really any safety procedures at all?” 

Katya flipped her hair. Her wings _fwomped_ in a similar motion. “Point taken.” 

A few minutes later Sasha rejoined the winged girl on the studio floor, holding an exercise top. It was basically a single sheath of cloth with a band on the bottom and two loose strands of fabric to be tied about the neck. After trying to get the bottom of the shirt over her brand new appendages, it became obvious the article was going to need adjustments. 

“I hope you weren’t attached to this one,” said Katya. 

“Haven’t worn it since high school.” Sasha grabbed a pair of sewing scissors and effortlessly clipped the band in half. She tied the two strips into a bow around Katya’s waist and let the platinum blonde tie the other behind her head. 

“There,” said Sasha. “Much more decent. Now, let’s do some training.” 

_____ 

Alaska managed the rest of her classes, but only just. She was fidgety in DuJour’s and downright rude in Masters’. By the end of the advanced level dance class, she just wanted to be in her own room, where she could yank off the hoodie and the band-aids and just scratch. Alaska had found herself absentmindedly picking at the bandages on her head ten minutes into DuJour’s demonstration. She’d pried the borders of the adhesive off before she stopped herself. The more she thought about not touching her head, the more her head _begged_ to be touched. It tingled, stretched, and most incessantly, itched. 

Now she barreled through the door into her dorm and yanked off her hood. 

“Woah there!” 

Alaska jumped half out of her skin, stumbling against the wall to the floor, banging her wrist and elbow on the way down. “SHIT!” 

Roxxxy dashed over to Alaska, now crumpled on the floor. “Damn, ‘Lask, you okay?” 

“Fuck shit mother--” Alaska grunted, gingerly holding up her right arm, her wrist limp, too painful to try and move it. 

“Damn,” repeated Roxxxy, but she wasn’t looking at Alaska anymore. She was looking above her. 

Following her roommate’s gaze, Alaska found that there was a clear dent in the drywall behind her that hadn’t been there before. “ _Fuck_.” Alaska held her head with her left hand. “I’m gonna have to report that.” 

“This is just not your day, sister,” said Roxxxy. 

Alaska sighed and shook her head, hair falling over her face. 

Roxxxy reached out, concerned. “And what happened to your head?” 

“Oh it’s--” Alaska had had a cover story, had thought one up but she couldn’t remember it now. _Fuck_ , her arm hurt. 

“Nevermind, let’s just get you up.” Roxxxy offered her hand. 

Alaska looked up. Roxxxy was good. She really was. She was different, subdued somewhat, and Alaska liked that. She related to it. As opposed to Detox, Alaska could just sit with Roxxxy in silence and be okay. She let Roxxxy help her up, blinking away the stars as they danced in front of her vision. 

Waving off her friend’s offers of help, Alaska insisted that what she really needed was a nap. Today had been more exhausting than any other in recent memory, and it wasn’t even 4 pm. The stinging in her arm was already going away, though Alaska was far more careful not to hit it than usual. She downed a couple allergy tablets and burrowed into her pillow. 

It felt like five minutes later that Roxxxy gently knocked on her door to wake Alaska. Alaska groaned. 

“I know, honey,” said Roxxxy apologetically. “But you said to wake you when there was food.” 

Alaska sat up ramrod straight at the magic word. “You cook?” Her mouth watered already. 

Roxxxy smiled. “Nope, Dee made vegetarian tacos. Your favorite, since I told her you had such a shitty day.” 

Alaska put a hand on Roxxxy’s shoulder. “You,” she breathed. “Are a saint.” 

Roxxxy leaned away, gently plucking Alaska’s hand off her. “And _you_ need a mint.” 

Alaska gasped in mock offence. Roxxxy smiled playfully. “What I _need_ is a tofu taco in my mouth, right now.” Alaska shoved Roxxxy aside in what was supposed to be a light, playful amount of force, but ended up hurling her friend onto her bed. 

“Woah!” breathed Roxxxy. 

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to throw you!” Alaska slapped her right hand across her mouth. 

Roxxxy shook it off, focusing instead on Alaska’s arm. “Healed up I see?” 

Alaska looked down. She’d expected her wrist and elbow to be angry, red and swollen after they caught her entire body weight against the wall (hard enough to crunch the plaster). Now as she rotated, flexed, flapped her arm, there wasn’t a single sign she’d ever so much as bumped it. Alaska glanced at her clock. She’d gotten back four hours ago. 

_Huh_. 

“So tacos,” she said, looking up at Roxxxy. 

Roxxxy nodded, linking her arm through Alaska’s. “Tacos.” 

_____ 

“Tacos?” asked Sasha, gazing down at a take-out menu. Katya panted, her hair matted and disheveled, windblown from air currents she had made herself. “I don’t have a preference.” 

Katya blew at a piece of hair in her vision. No use, it was stuck on her eyelash. She whipped her hair around. “Look, Sash,” she began. “I really appreciating you being my Mister Miyagi and all, but like, I don’t think I can actually fly.” 

Sasha held up a finger, silencing Katya as she placed a call for take-out. 

Katya sighed and looked at a wall clock that had been re-worked to be made of driftwood and corkboard. There were no numbers, so just by looking at the positioning of the long and short hands 

Katya guessed it was nearing six o’clock. They’d been at this training thing for a long time. 

She just couldn’t get over how patient and kind Sasha was being. It almost didn’t seem right, letting the art student uproot her studio, her routine, her life just because Katya had grown a couple of extra limbs. And every time Katya got frustrated, Sasha was there with a calming voice and the perfect set of words, pulling her back into the right headspace. 

_A few hours ago, Katya had gotten frustrated, wings whipping and slapping at the walls like the chubby arms of a toddler. Sasha had been trying to get her to stretch her wings out as far as they could go, but Katya had been adamant. “I don’t want them out,” she’d insisted. “I want them in! Don’t you get it?!_ ” 

_Sasha didn’t raise her voice. “I get that you’re scared.” Katya stopped. “I get that you feel like these things have more power than you do, that you’ll lose control and hurt someone, that this power is too much to handle._ ” 

_Katya felt hot tears at the edges of her vision._

“ _But Katya, you’re strong,” Sasha said. “And these wings, they’re part of you-- they’re an extension of you. Think about it, Kat! They respond to your moods and stress levels, the only reason they’re rebelling is because you don’t believe you are in control of your own body._ ” 

_It felt like Katya had swallowed a stone, Sasha’s statement hit so hard. Her wings stilled mid-flail and she stared at Sasha in shock. Sasha’s red lips were pulled into her biggest, warmest smile. Katya felt privileged to have that much pride aimed her way_. 

“ _Give me your hand, _bol'shaya ptitsa_ ,” said Sasha_. 

_Katya obliged. Just the touch of Sasha’s hand in hers was enough to comfort her, chasing away any lingering anxiety. Katya let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding_. 

“ _Now how do you feel_?” 

_Katya took a stabilizing breath and squared her shoulders. “Ready to try again_.” 

Since then, Sasha had gotten Katya to push her wings all the way out so they pressed up against either wall of the studio, about 30 feet. Katya had a sneaking suspicion she could actually go farther, but there wasn’t enough space to try out that hypothesis. Also thanks to Sasha, Katya had managed to pull her wings back to a fluffy cape resting behind her, only dragging on the floor about six inches when she walked. 

Since that breakthrough, though, they’d hit a wall. Sasha had been trying to get Katya to fully extend and retract her wings in one go. Katya ended up pink-faced and panting after a few tries, leaving her with strain on her new muscles and a feeling in her brain like she’d just taken a 3 hour math test. 

Sasha had said she had a wingspan that should be able to support Katya’s weight enough to get off the ground. Maybe they could, Katya conceded. But not today. 

Katya perched on the arm of a sofa in one corner of the studio and let her wings rest. When she relaxed and just let her wings do what they wanted, they lay limp at about six or seven feet. _Maybe if I was taller they’d be less of a hassle_ , she thought. 

____ 

_Maybe if I were shorter they’d be easier to hide_ , mused Alaska. Tacos had been a great mood enhancer. Detox ranted about a student she hated and Alaska and Roxxxy had ended up rolling around the floor, barely able to breathe. She’d actually managed to forget her growing issue… until Detox had caught a glance _._

__

__

“ _The fuck is wrong with your head?” she’d blurted _.__

____

____

_Alaska’s smile dropped from her mouth. Instinctively she bowed her head and shook her hair to cover her face. Fuck, it had been going so well_. 

“ _That’s that dent in the drywall.” Roxxxy covered for her, without needing be asked. She tipped her wineglass at Alaska. “Miss Thing here busted in headfirst_.” 

_Detox jumped to her feet, wobbling a little. “Well fuck, Alaska, get some ice on that mug, what the fuck_?” 

Later, in her room, Alaska sighed and pressed the bag of frozen peas to her forehead. It wasn’t doing anything, but Detox was so protective, she felt she at least had to try. She thought again about the drywall -- she’d punched right through to the inside. Now she turned both her arms over; she couldn’t remember which one had hit. 

Maybe out of self hatred, she started hitting herself. Knocking her wrists on the edge of her bed, softly at first, then to her greatest strength. Her eyebrows knitted together. She never felt more than a twinge. She moved up to her arms, similar situation. It wasn’t that she was impervious to pain -- she still felt it, but nothing lasted. 

Her heart rate steadily rose. She wasn’t feeling pain -- not how she should. She should have been swearing up a storm, should have been jumping around her room when she hit her ulnar nerve. It wasn’t nothing but it wasn’t _normal_. Her breathing quickened. She could have a nerve disorder. She could have been drugged. She could be having a stroke with symptoms so rare WebMD didn’t even bother listing them! She could be hallucinating the horns on her head! 

She stopped in her tracks. She wasn’t hallucinating. Because Detox had seen them too. Roxxxy likely had too, and just hadn’t mentioned it. Alaska sunk to the floor in front of her mirror and pushed her hair behind her ears. Her stomach sank. 

The horns had grown. 

This morning the growths had been what -- half the length between the tip and joint of her thumb? 

Now, as she slid her fingers across the rough surface she realized, the fuckers had over _doubled_ in size. 

Alaska nodded at her reflection, with her pristine arms and horns sticking out of her skull. Her brown eyes, her long limbs, her pink lips. “Nope,” she decided. 

45 minutes and three NyQuil later, Alaska was facedown in her pillow, having decided she was done for the day. __ 

“Done for the day,” Sasha declared. 

Katya groaned in appreciation. Her back ached, her head ached -- she was sore in muscles she hadn’t had yesterday. When Shea Coulee arrived with a tray full of tacos, she rejoiced. 

Once Katya had had her first bite of crunchy faux-mexican goodness, she took a proper look at their deliverer. Despite the delicious food, when Katya took a good look at Shea Coulee, her mouth went dry. “Oh holy fuck.” 

“They’re good I know,” scratched Shea, her voice like scratching on wood. 

“What?” Katya’s mind momentarily glitched. “Oh,” she looked down at her forgotten food. “Yeah! The tacos, they’re good but _wow -- you_!” 

Shea paused mid-chew, her mouth pulled to one side, a string of lettuce hanging from her lip. Katya controlled the urge to grab it with her own teeth. _This is Sasha’s girlfriend_ , she reminded herself. _And you will practice restraint_. 

Sasha poked Shea in her side. “The drawings don’t do her justice, do they?” 

“No they do not,” said Katya, shoving a big bite in her mouth before she could say something stupid. 

Shea poked her girlfriend back. “Aw, you mean my shrine. Isn’t she gorgeous?” 

Katya chuckled along with the other girls. They moved to the couch to fire up Netflix and finish dinner. It was Sasha’s night to pick what to watch, and the bald girl looked to Katya, her guest, for her approval. Katya squinted at the screen Shea’s thumb was resting over The Great British Baking Show. 

Katya leaned back and examined her new friend with judgemental eyes. 

Sasha squirmed. “It’s good, okay? It’s cake and they’re pretty!” 

Katya shook her head and shoved the last half a taco in her mouth (her fourth) before sucking her fingers. “I’m down, just hit play.” 

Fifteen minutes in, when Katya and Sasha were stressing about cracked Swiss Rolls, Katya felt the hairs on the back of her neck stick up, like she was being watched. She glanced over at Shea, whose eyes were fixed on the competition. The more they watched, the more Katya felt certain Shea was watching her when her back was turned. She shifted her weight on the couch, her wings spasming here and there with her nerves. She tried to calm herself, but it was hard to do when rooting for a woman crying over cake. 

Sasha paused the program for Shea to grab some Donettes from the cabinet. Katya decided to follow her. “Like it’s great that he tried to innovate, like he took a thought about a way to potentially do a roll different and even though it didn’t work he doesn’t deserve to go home for --” Shea chattered. 

“Have you been staring at me?” Katya blurted. 

Shea paused, her arm halfway into the wooden cabinet. 

“I mean I wouldn’t be mad if you were I can’t blame you it’s not every day you see someone with oversized dove wings sticking out from between their shoulder blades but also I don’t want you to think I’m assuming you’d be staring at--” Katya backtracked. 

“I wasn’t,” said Shea. 

Katya’s shoulders (and consequently her wings) drooped. “Oh.” 

Shea blinked and gave Katya a cautious side-eye. “I wasn’t staring at you,” she said. “I was intentionally _not_ … staring at you.” 

Katya wanted to crawl out of her own skin and die. 

Then Shea continued. “But, I was _thinking_ … about you.” 

Katya’s wings stood at attention, her eyes wide open. “What?” 

Shea shifted the bag of miniature donuts to her hip. “I was thinking. About what Sash told me about you -- like I thought it was a joke at first or like some fuckin 3-D printed mechanical shit but like…” she motioned toward Katya’s feathery shoulders. “That’s real. Those. Are real.” 

Katya nodded. “It’s weird. Like…” 

Shea nodded. “Yeah, like.” 

“Uh-huh.” 

Katya pressed her lips together. The awkwardness was not helped by the individual tics Katya’s wings made slotting feathers in and out of place. After seconds that felt like hours Sasha called from the couch “Come on! This idiot forgot to leave out cherries to dress his cake with!” 

… 

After the elimination of Woman Who Cried Over Cake, Katya said she was tired after her long day of training. Sasha didn’t fight to stay up, instead insisting she and Shea do all the cleaning up while Katya relaxed. Swiping crumbs off the couch and onto the cement floor, Katya curled up on her side and pulled her wings over her body like a blanket. 

She didn’t know how long she dozed off for, but it was long enough for Sasha and Shea to throw discretion to the wayside. There were murmurs and choked giggled and whispers as the pair made their way up the noisy stairs. The creaking and squeaking and thumping roused Katya further, but not completely. Not enough to say anything about it. She merely nuzzled further into the couch. 

At some point Katya became acutely aware of… sounds. Like someone was in pain, but also not. Her twilight brain took a few minutes of listening to choked moans of ‘Oh Shea’ before her eyes snapped open and her wings jerked her off the couch. 

Katya sat paralyzed on the floor. The acoustics in the studio were great for music and learning to play an instrument, not so great for trying not to hear someone boning fifteen feet away. _Fuck, what should I do_? 

She just sat there for a few minutes, aware of just how similar noises were even when with other people-- but she needed to stop thinking about that. She could wait until they were done? Oh, but they were gay, and Katya knew better than most how long lesbian sex can take, partners free to take their time. The rhythm didn’t sound angry; Katya sighed and focused on relaxing her wings. This was gonna be a while. 

As Shea and Sasha continued their rhythm, Katya’s mind lulled, her hand draping over herself without thinking. Pressing her palm to her inner thigh and listening to the couple’s sighs Katya wondered how long it had been since she last got laid… 

Intentionally not thinking about what she was doing, Katya gently squeezed herself through her underwear. She felt her nipples gently rise and shifted so her wings wouldn’t throw her body off the couch when she got excited. She smirked at the way her new appendages arranged themselves like a privacy screen, so even if by chance someone were to come down the rickety stairs, all they would see was a pile of feathers. 

Katya smirked: this was giving ‘tenting’ a whole new meaning. 

___ 

There was a field of rainbow flowers among fluorescent green grass. She came upon a bright red checkered blanket, on which reclined a lean blonde woman. She wore an oversized sunhat, her cherry red lips the only visible feature. Her lips smiled and a hand beckoned her over. 

Alaska glided, the blades of grass leaning away from her like she commanded them. As she approached she realized that behind a woven picnic basket and the surrounding flora, the woman was naked. 

Her heart sped in her chest. 

A voice, familiar but far away came out of the woman’s smiling mouth, from behind bright white teeth. “ _Lie down with me_ ,” she purred. 

Alaska fell to her knees in front of the woman and leaned over her, not quite touching her. She wanted to see her face… 

___ 

A girl popped up in Katya’s fantasy. A mess of blonde hair and a caring voice, bending down, wearing a deep V neck shirt with nothing beneath. Deep, knowing brown eyes. There was an itching of familiarity, but Katya discarded that concern for a more pressing kind of itch. Shea and Sasha had swapped places upstairs, and Katya’s head and feet dug into the cushions. Her sensitivity was heightened, her body hot and sweating. 

The girl was all limbs, gangly and unique. In Katya’s fantasy, the girl leaned down and slowly placed her hand above Katya’s. “ _Anything I can help with_?” 

___ 

The woman whipped her sun hat off to lean up and kiss Alaska. Alaska knew she recognized that bone structure, but her mind went blank the second the woman’s lips touched hers. The familiar feeling of being kissed, this woman knew her, knew exactly how to hold Alaska’s neck and make her feel secure, like she’d always wanted. 

They rolled over, and the woman’s heavy breasts rested on Alaska’s chest. Alaska kissed back, running her hands down the woman’s toned form. The blonde head traveled down her abdomen, kissing her way before slotting into place between Alaska’s legs. 

She didn’t know she was saying a name, but it was the right one, she knew. She just couldn’t hear her own gasps over the feeling of her building climax. The world blotted out… 

___ 

“ _Alaska_!” 

___ 

“ _Katya_!”


	3. Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Committed to figuring out her horns, Alaska skips school. Katya commits to mastering her wings, and unlocks the ability to fly. Fate finally brings the two together.

Alaska woke up to the taste of foam. 

When she opened her eyes, she had to slap her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. First of all, her pillow was shredded. As was the top half of her mattress. This was due to, second of all, the fact that her blood red horns had inexplicably grown overnight. 

While Alaska had been dreaming of a beautiful and bodacious blonde, her new additions had tripled in length, and doubled in width. She saw in the mirror that the things growing out of her head tapered toward the ends, and were slightly curved. 

“Fuck.” It wasn’t even like she had been the one to say it. Alaska reached up and grabbed one horn in either hand. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” 

There was a knock at her door. Alaska panicked. 

“ ‘Lask?” said Roxxxy through the door. “Everything okay in there?” 

“Um!” she shouted. “Yeah, I just…” _shit shit shit shit shit shit_. 

“What, make the mistake of checking your grades?” Roxxxy laughed. 

Alaska thanked whatever God existed (although was there much point in thanking God? God definitely wasn’t a big fan of her, as evidenced by her natural Maleficent cosplay) and fell to her knees in front of the mirror. “Exactly that,” she called. 

“Whatever, that 89 will jump up soon.” She heard her roommate’s footsteps plodding away. “I’m off to class! Take care of yourself, ‘Lask!” 

“I will!” Alaska called back. As soon as she heard the door close, she let herself fall to her hands and knees. She wanted to beat her head into the floor, but the horns stopped her. She let out a frustrated sob. 

_How is this happening? How is this my life? The fuck did I do to deserve this_? 

Alaska huffed and laboriously lifted her head to look at herself in the mirror. Her 8 inch long horns cast a curved shadow down her face. Alaska ran her hands over the ridged surface of her horns again. “Okay,” she breathed. 

Alaska rifled through her bedside drawer and pulled out a metal nail file. She grabbed her trash can from the corner of the room and crunched down the wads of paper inside. Setting the trash can in front of her on the floor, she bent her head slightly over and again looked at herself in the mirror. Alaska raised the file to the tip of her right horn. 

It hadn’t worked before, but second time was the charm, right? 

_____ 

“Second time’s a charm,” said Sasha. Katya groaned from the couch. She had been so comfy, and her dreams had been so nice before her new best friend had to go and turn on the lights and demand she eat a hearty breakfast instead of subsisting entirely off of coffee. 

Sasha handed Katya a homemade ceramic plate stacked with food. Katya sighed. “I can’t eat all this.” 

Sasha wiped her hands with a dish towel. “Try.” 

Katya groaned. “Fiiiine Mooooom.” She picked up a piece of toast and stuck a corner between her teeth. “Hey, Sash?” Katya asked while she chewed. “What’s this?” she prodded at a strangely colored sausage with her fork. 

Sasha looked over. “Oh, it’s meat-free, hope that’s okay.” 

“Of course,” said Katya, shoving the rest of the toast in her mouth. “My brain isn’t awake yet,” she said, her mouth completely full. “Haven’t had caffeine yet.” 

Sasha grimaced. “Okay, I know I’m enough of a mom already but sis, swallow before you speak.” 

Katya swallowed hard, most of the toast unchewed. “ ‘Sis’?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. Katya leaned forward to cut a piece of vegetarian sausage. “Since when do you say ‘sis’, sis?” 

Sasha grinned and leaned against the counter. With a smirk Katya noted her friend was walking slightly off-kilter. 

“Guess I’m picking up some of Shea’s vocabulary,” said the bald girl, a stupid-in-love smile still plastered on her lips. Katya felt a warmth in her chest seeing the girl so happy. 

She stuck the slice of not-sausage in her mouth. “How long has it been anyway?” she 

asked, chewing just to spite Sasha. 

The other girl rolled her eyes at Katya’s lack of manners. She let a serene smile play back up her lips as she tracked her and Shea’s timeline in her head. “It’s been… five? Six months,” she said. “Yeah, six months.” 

Katya smiled. So it definitely was Shea that Sasha was obsessing over that night. The girl she had been trying to push from her mind. 

“What?’ asked Sasha, aware of Katya’s knowing expression. 

Katya swallowed. The not-sausage was, of course, not as good as real sausage, but it wasn’t terrible. “Six months,” she repeated. “That’s practically married by lesbian standards.” 

Sasha chuckled. “You would know.” 

Katya regrettably downed a gulp of orange juice -- she’d rather it was coffee. “How would I?” she said. “Never had a relationship last that long.” 

Sasha didn’t quite know what to say to that, so she pulled a stool in front of her sketching table, leaving Katya to eat her breakfast in peace. Katya watched an episode of some brain-numbing sitcom while she ate. Before long, she realized she’d downed over half of the plate, and she didn’t feel quite satisfied yet. Katya turned to thank Sasha, only to find her new BFF with her bookbag slung over her shoulder. 

“Whoa, Sash, where you going?” Katya quickly put her plate down on the coffee table and easily vaulted over the couch, her wings fwomping behind her. 

Sasha sighed and looked over at Katya uncomfortably. “Kat, don’t get me wrong, I love helping you but…” she shook her head and zipped up her bag. “I have class, I’m on a scholarship I can’t afford to let my grades drop--” 

Katya raised a hand. “I get it.” _Of course, there are people who actually care about academics and classes and of course Sasha is one of those people_. She smiled shallowly. 

Sasha sighed, in relief this time. “You won’t be alone,” she said. “Shea’s on her way over, she has an early morning class. She’s agreed to help you today.” 

Katya pressed her lips together. It was very hard not to interpret that as her needing a babysitter, though she knew that wasn’t what Sasha had meant. She waved as the artsy girl left before slowly making her way back to the couch and her unfinished plate. 

It was the boring emotional part of the sitcom, and Katya boredly chased not-meat around the edge of her plate with a fork. It was good that Sasha wasn’t letting her get in the way of her own achievement. It would have been selfish to ask Sasha to stay with her. Shea wasn’t a bad person it was just… Katya speared sausage with her fork and chomped down hard. It seemed the minimal flavor was gone already. Katya didn’t know Shea, not the way she knew Sasha. Her biggest fear was that last night’s awkwardness would return. 

_No_ , she told herself. _Shea is already a good person for volunteering to help a girl she only barely knows, let alone one who had had a one night stand with her girlfriend. Yes, it could be awkward, or it could go great. What definitely will happen is that I’ll get to know her better than last night. And I may even learn how to fly_. 

Katya smiled. Flying. She raised one of her wings to run her hand down the layers of pure white feathers. The backs of her wings had much bigger feathers. They were long and stiff. As she picked at a dented feather, she realized these long feathers resisted damage, whereas she was already shedding downy fluff from the undersides of her wings. Before she even realized it, she was preening, righting feathers that were out of place, plucking the rare damaged feather. 

The heavy door to the studio swung open, Shea behind it carrying a green duffel bag. “Woah, sis, you just gave me flashbacks to my pet parakeet.” She laughed. 

Katya chuckled in good humor, despite the blush that rose to her face. She didn’t know why, the activity of preening just felt so...intimate. She almost didn’t want Shea to mention it again. Katya lifted herself off the couch and strolled over to Shea, her nerves making the edges of her wings twitch. Shea had her dark hair up in a ponytail, strands of fly-away hairs framing her face. She was wearing neon sneakers and what looked like workout clothes. Her smooth skin glistened. 

Katya realized she hadn’t actually asked what Shea’s early morning class was, and felt more awkwardness and embarrassment rise. “Hey, so… how did...it...go?” she asked awkwardly, trying to change the subject. 

Shea laughed, a gravelly yet charming sound. Katya relaxed a little. Her wings stopped twitching. 

“Dance went great,” she said, tossing her duffel into a corner along with crumpled up sketches and newspapers. Shea stretched her arms over her head and clasped her hands together. Katya realized she hadn’t actually seen the girl’s arms before; Shea was built. 

Katya nodded quickly, trying not to stare at the girl’s biceps. “A morning workout,” she commented. “I used to do that a lot; it felt great every time I did.” 

Shea reached one arm across her chest and held it with the other. “Oh really?” She switched arms. “Why’d you stop?” 

Katya looked down. “Ah… the class ended and then I got put on night shifts and it’s, y’know, impossible to get up at the crack of dawn when that’s when you get home from work and…” 

“I’m hearing a lot of excuses,” said Shea, raising and eyebrow as she leaned over to touch the front of her shoe. 

Katya’s jaw dropped and an involuntary squeak came out of her mouth. She wanted to clap back, but nothing came to mind. 

Shea straightened up and rolled her eyes. “Relax,” she said. “I get it -- take a joke, Mary.” Shea put her sweaty-yet muscular palms on either of Katya’s bony shoulders. “I’m gonna take a shower, then we’re out of here.” 

Shea patted Katya’s shoulders before she headed for the rickety stairs. 

“W-wait!” called Katya, her voice echoing off the studio walls. 

Shea stopped just before disappearing into the second-story of the studio. “What?” 

Katya’s wings fidgeted behind her. “A-are we-- are we _leaving_?” 

Shea tongue-popped. “Yeah.” She turned around but not before Katya could call after her. 

“Shea?!” Katya stomped across the concrete floor. “Where are we going?” 

The other girl didn’t stop this time from disappearing from Katya’s view. “You’ll see!” 

___ 

“You’ll see,” Alaska sneered at the mirror. “I’ll get rid of you if it’s the last thing I do.” 

In front of her on the floor lay the shards of the metal nail file she’d been hacking away at her horns with for the last hour. From all her efforts though, her reflection remained unchanged. She was skipping class for this, and she would find a way to get rid of these things growing out of her head. Even if it killed her. 

Alaska took a breath before reaching over to the switch that controlled the fan in her room. It was hot in here, with her one window bleeding sunlight through the blinds. She was sweating from all the work and effort she’d put in, and she’d gotten nowhere. 

Alaska sighed. Roxxxy wouldn’t be back for another hour or so. There was no knowing where Dee was off to, only that she wasn’t home, or Alaska would have heard her. Even though she was in their dorm alone, Alaska didn’t feel at all comfortable leaving the privacy of her room. She also didn’t feel like looking at the major dent her body had made in the wall yesterday. She held up her pale arms to the light, but there was no use. She couldn’t tell which arm had dented the wall. There were no lasting marks: not a scratch, no discoloration, no bruising _at all_. 

Alaska leaned forward and gripped her mirror tight. She could see the mirror bend at her strength, warping the edges of her reflection. “What are you?” she asked her reflection. 

Alaska sat back against her bed just soon enough to see the hairline crack stretch across her mirror, splitting her face in half. 

Alaska rested her head against the side of her bed and closed her eyes. 

_What the fuck am I_? 

_____ 

Katya huffed as they traversed up a steep hill. “You know, Shea,” she called between breaths. “If I had known you were planning to,” she sucked in cool air “bring me to the top of a mountain… I would have… said no.” Katya’s lungs and calves burned. 

“That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you!” called Shea from up ahead. Katya couldn’t even see her from down here. “Now quit talking! It’s a waste of oxygen!” 

Katya gasped in enough air to propel herself up the final few feet of the hill. She stumbled to the ground on already sore palms and knees. When Katya caught her breath and looked ahead, she found that Shea was walking away from the path, into a clearing. Twenty minutes ago, she would have insisted on knowing where Shea was taking her, but now she was too out of breath to bother asking. 

She followed Shea into the middle of the clearing, which was only slightly smaller than Sasha’s studio. The ground was soft and covered in tall grass and flowers, surrounded on all sides by thin trees made for surviving in the desert. Shea stretched, waiting for Katya to approach. When she did, Katya had mostly caught her breath from their extensive hike. 

“So what is this?” 

Shea held out her arms. “This is where you’re gonna learn to fly.” 

Katya folded her arms across her chest. The burn in her lungs and legs were gone, but she’d already gotten her wings stuck in overhanging branches and damaged by sharp rock faces on the way up. She was only learning to balance her wings with her body, how did Shea expect her to master flight? 

“What makes you think I even can?” She questioned. “Birds have extra pockets inside them to hold air, their bones are hollow to make them lighter—I’m just a human person.” 

Shea reached for a large piece of twig sticking out from between a patch of Katya’s mussed feathers. Katya retracted instinctively. Shea held up her hands. “Alright, fine, I won’t help. We can go home, we just hiked all this way for nothing.” 

Katya’s heart sank. “Well maybe,” she raised her voice. “Maybe I’ll _try_. But don’t expect a miracle.” 

Shea smiled. "Then go for it. Whenever you're ready." 

Katya drew in a deep breath and let herself feel the weight of her body. The tickle of grass against her legs, the fall of her hair down her shoulders, the phantom muscles that connected to her wings… 

Katya’s eyes snapped open, her wings springing to their fullest. Dirt and twigs sprayed, launched out of her wings. Katya tried to extend them further, but found she couldn’t. In the space and safety of the meadow, she felt awake, alive, like she could really breathe. Her feathers trembled and her wings stretched as if to say, _please stop ignoring us_. Katya let out a little laugh and looked over to Shea, who was smiling with pride. She’d taken a few steps back to give Katya more space, but something told Katya she’d be needing even more. 

“Shea, if you could take a few steps back? No, like, all the way back, yeah, all the way.” 

Now that Shea was leaning against a tree and Katya had the whole meadow to herself, anxiety pricked at her edges. How could she know how to do this? What if she failed and-- 

“Stop thinking about it!” called Shea from the sidelines. 

Katya relaxed. Shea was right. This should be natural, like breathing or walking. She didn’t have to be told how to move her wings, her body just did it. Taking a deep breath in, she let her mind go wherever it felt like. 

She remembered being in the pool growing up, summers spent with other neighborhood kids at the public pool. They had never really liked her -- she remembered the sting of chlorine in her eyes and the cackling of mean children -- but that’s not what she focused on. Instead, Katya focused on what it had felt like to submerge her arm in the water and sweep it wide, the surface buckling in her wake. That was movement she caused on purpose. Katya recalled it now, the waves she could make with only her movements. 

It started happening before she even knew it, her center of gravity shifted and she felt her hair whip around her face. Somewhere far away she was aware of someone calling out to her. More than that, she felt watched by...something else. 

_____ 

_The grass is tall above me when I approach. I don't know where I’m going, but I feel pulled. My belly against the soft earth, I make my way toward the call. I break into the clearing and She shines like a mirror against the sun. She is a dove, lifting into the air unaided by wind currents, for she creates her own out of pure power. There is Another nearby, her feathers brown and her eyes shining. Another chirps out a laugh as we both watch Her struggle against gravity itself. She’s so beautiful. I’m pulled away from the glade and I cry in protest -- I never want to stop looking at Her. But before everything blots out into inky blackness, I hear Her let out a frightened scream_. 

… 

“Alaska!” a thumping. 

“Alaaaskaaa!” there’s a hammering. 

“Alaska Thunder, I will call the campus police if you don’t let me in!” 

Alaska bolted upright, wobbling as she lost her balance for the weight on her head. 

Half still asleep she cranked the handle to the hallway, flinging her bedroom door aside. She wasn’t really aware of the cracking noise that came from beside her, whether it came from the wall or the door itself. Alaska didn’t care. 

She walked past the torso-sized dent next to the front door and clicked the lock undone. Another swing of her wrist and the front door to her dorm was opened wide, daylight streaming in around a bald-headed figure. “What.” Alaska barked. 

She blinked hard and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Through bleary vision she recognized her classmate and fellow full-ride scholarship holder, Sasha Velour. And 

Sasha weirdly enough wasn’t looking her in the eye. She was staring… 

Alaska’s hands whipped to her head, grasping her rough horns. “Sasha!” she yelled, panic waking her up the same amount as a shot of caffeine. “I can explain.” 

Sasha drew her gaze down from Alaska’s head. She smiled and shook her head. 

“You… don’t need to.” 

“But--” 

Sasha held up a hand. “This doesn’t even crack the top 5 weirdest things I’ve seen in the past 48 hours. Trust me here.” 

Alaska faltered. Going by Sasha's face, she wasn't kidding. 

Sasha reached for Alaska’s hand with both of her own; Alaska let her. The girl’s hands were warm and soothing. Just having another person touch her so tenderly eased some of her stress. Alaska felt her shoulders relax. She hummed in the back of her throat. “Do you wanna come inside?” she asked. 

Sasha held up a keyring on her finger. “I actually think you wanna come with me.” 

Alaska shifted her weight. “I can’t…” 

Sasha tutted and shrugged her bag from her shoulder. She was wearing a knitted cardigan over a pop art Tee; shrugging off her cardigan, she pulled it to its full length. “Head down,” she directed. 

Alaska did as she was told and let Sasha pull her cardigan over her head, tugging her hair up and into the cloth. She let her friend pull and knot the fabric into a makeshift headdress, piling Alaska’s nearly three feet of hair on top of her head, hiding her horns along with her hair. She held up her phone camera so Alaska could see her handiwork. 

Alaska poked the head dress. The only way anyone could know what was underneath was if they pulled it off. She looked down at Sasha wide-eyed. “Thank you,” she breathed. 

Sasha stowed her phone back in her bag. “Now come on.” 

Alaska ran back inside to grab her phone and double-check that her dorm key still hung around her neck--it did. She scribbled a note on the whiteboard for Detox and Roxxxy before locking the front door and joining Sasha to walk to her car. “Where to?” she asked. 

Sasha pressed a button on her keyfob and a little green car chirped in response. 

“Does it matter?” she asked, opening the door for Alaska. “There’ll be food.” 

Alaska’s stomach cramped. She suddenly remembered how long it had been since she’d eaten. “Lead the way, then.” 

… 

“So why’d you come to my dorm?” asked Alaska, snacking on a bag of edamame Sasha had in her ashtray. Sasha signaled to turn and looked behind her before merging. _Of course she’s a careful driver_ , thought Alaska. 

“Well, considering you showed up to lecture the day after getting major surgery, Alaska Thunder being absent from class basically means you must be dead.” 

Alaska screwed up her face in thought. “When did I do that?” she asked. 

“Last February. Valentine's Day week. You got sick, your appendix was trying to kill you. You miss one day in surgery, the next in recovery, and are back and heavily medicated the following day.” 

Alaska split open an edamame and flung the bean between her teeth. “Jesus, Velour, you and your unsurpassed memory. Oh but I remember now! Yeah, that was a Thursday and I love DuJour’s talks! I hate missing one and I’d already missed two days!” 

Sasha laughed. Alaska was such a good student -- one of the only other people she knew who also prioritized learning over socializing. Before Sasha had asked Shea out, she hadn’t had a social life. At least Alaska had Dee and Roxxxy. _Actually_ , thought Sasha. _It has been a year since_ … “I hope you don’t mind my asking but, have you met anyone?” 

It was the way she said it; Alaska felt cold spread through her chest. She stopped chewing and stowed the snack bag. 

“I’m sorry, that was an overstep--” 

“It was,” said Alaska. “No I haven’t.” She forced the spaces between her eyebrows and shoulder blades to relax. “How are you and Shea?” she asked pointedly, her voice sickeningly sweet. 

Sasha swallowed and scraped her fingers over her bald head. “We’re good,” she said. “She’s um, I don’t know if I told you this already but she’s moving in. With me.” 

“Ah, actually you did tell me that but it’s okay.” Alaska racked her brain for something, anything else to talk about to keep her from thinking about-- 

“So are you gonna do anything for the fall fashion show?” Sasha’s voice was tight, her knuckles white as she gripped the steering wheel. 

This was the place she and Alaska had the most overlap. She was more visual and conceptual in her art, dabbling in history. Alaska was an innate performer, leading their university in theater and other performance-based areas. But fashion was where visual and performing arts overlapped, and the two had gone head-to-head in the last fashion show. Alaska had taken home a prize in category Glamour and Sasha had swiped the title for Avant-Garde. 

Alaska slapped her forehead. “Fuck right that’s coming up! I completely forgot. When do we have to have applications in?” 

Sasha pulled into the downstairs parking garage. “Ummmm, the seventeenth I think? It’s on the website.” 

Alaska whipped out her phone and furiously searched. Sasha had pulled into her regular parking spot when Alaska slapped her hand around Sasha’s wrist with a vice-like grip. “No,” she said. “Not the seven _teenth_ ,” Alaska squeaked and gripped Sasha harder. She looked up into her friend’s eyes with desperation and panic. “The seventh.” 

Sasha’s stomach fell. “That’s--” 

Alaska gasped in a breath to make up for what she’d been holding on to. “Tonight, at midnight.” 

Sasha turned her car off. “Welp, we’ve got a little less than ten hours then. I’ve got a strong internet connection inside. Let’s get to it, ‘Lasky.” 

Alaska shakingly pulled herself out of the car, eyes glued to her phone's screen. “I’ve never, ever missed a deadline before.” 

“You won’t today,” Sasha reassured. “Besides, you’ve never asked for an extension?” 

“Well duh,” Alaska replied. “But never because I procrastinated, or _forgot_.” 

Sasha linked her arm through Alaska’s and pulled them toward the stairwell. “Me neither. Like when I see those procrastination memes, I just tilt my head and think, ‘wonder what that’s like’.” 

... 

Sasha and Alaska split up the application form into pages to make it easier for them to fill out. 

“Do you plan on being your own model?” Sasha read from her sheet. 

Alaska hummed. “I don't know, I did last time but apparently I did it wrong.” 

“Yeah, you smiled.” 

“Models aren’t allowed to smile? They’re getting paid to _walk_.” 

Sasha chuckled and put Alaska down as a ’no’ on the online form. “Do you have someone in mind to model for you, or would you like to be paired with a modeling student?” 

“Ew,” said Alaska. “I’m not handing over my creation to someone I don’t know. Their whole vibe could contrast with the outfit--not taking the chance.” 

Sasha marked it down. “Do you have a friend in mind you want to model for you?” Alaska puckered her lips in concentration. As much as she loved her roommates, she didn’t exactly trust them. Dee would either show up late, hungover, or both. Roxxxy was sweet, but had a tricky figure to design for, and the contestants last year who brought in plus sized models ended up on the bottom of all their categories. She loved the idea of adding diversity but… she didn’t want to take the risk. If Alaska Thunder entered in a competition, she was going to win something, and if sticking with toxic standards of physical beauty was the way to do it… she’d take risks when she’d established herself. 

“So Alaska,” said Sasha from her place sprawled out on the coffee table. “When did… those appear?” 

“Hm?” Alaska looked up confused, only to see Sasha pointing at her headdress. “Shit,” she hissed, grabbing at a horn beneath the cloth. “You know I’d actually managed to forget they were there,” she said ruefully. 

Sasha grimaced. “Sorry.” 

Alaska sighed. “No, it’s -- it’s fine. Yesterday. They,” she slapped her hand against her right horn over the knit sweater. “Showed up when I woke up yesterday morning. Looked like giant zits.” 

Sasha nodded her head, remembering the squishy mounds Katya had had on her back when she’d found her. “Oh,” she said, remembering. “Alaska, there’s a reason I invited you here, and it’s not to feed you.” 

Alaska raised an eyebrow. “Okaaaaay.” 

Sasha grabbed a sketchpad and flipped past many images of Shea in various outfits and lack of outfits. Alaska blushed just looking over Sasha’s shoulder. Sasha cried out and presented a sketch, the date in the corner a day old. In it, a strikingly familiar blonde girl stuffed a taco in her mouth, but that was only the lower quadrant. The whole rest of the page was filled with incredibly detailed wings that connected to the girl’s back. It was actually kind of funny, seeing this girl unceremoniously chow down with literal angel wings sticking out of her. 

Alaska looked up to pass back the sketchbook and commend Sasha on her sketching, but just then the door to the stairwell slammed open. Two women stood in the industrial doorframe, one supporting the other. A girl Alaska recognized from Sasha’s sketchbook and the campus Step and Dance team held a pale girl’s arm around her shoulders. The girl had blonde hair and... _no way_. 

_No fucking way_. 

Alaska stood up to get a better look. 

Sasha rushed over to the women. “Shea! Katya, how did it go?” 

Alaska froze. About a dozen images flashed before her eyes, a puzzle falling into place. A girl bent over crying into her skirt. _‘Hi I’m Alaska.’ ‘Katya.’_ A woman with shining white teeth, naked in a meadow on a picnic blanket, cherry red lips. A dove fighting against the very force of gravity and winning. 

The words escaped her lips so softly she didn’t even know if she’d said them. 

_It’s you._


	4. Felowship of Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our resident Angel and Demon finally get to have a conversation. They click so quick, it may get a little uncomfortable for the others present.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aka: Korean and Box Wine. that title didn't sound quite so cool. Slight **Content Warning** for **BRIEF description of depressive thought spiral and PAST suicidal ideation. Light alcohol consumption.**

“Katya,” Sasha greeted warmly, leading her over to a chair. The blonde collapsed, her entire body sore even though she hadn’t used it all that much. Her head ached. 

Shea tossed her an ice bag from the freezer which Katya failed to catch. She groaned and let Shea pick it up for her. “How did the flying go?” asked Sasha. 

Katya whined and smushed the ice over her whole face. She heard Shea bark a laugh next to her. “Kat actually got pretty good at takeoff. Landing is where she, if I may, ran a ground.” 

Katya moaned at both the pain and the pun. She lifted the ice off of her mouth. “Not ground,” she clarified. “Tree. Tree is what I ran into. Well, flew into. Ow.” 

Sasha patted her on the shoulder. “Oh by the way, Katya, I have someone I want you to meet.” 

She groaned loudly. “I just got back -- I’m exhausted, I am not in the mood to meet and greet--” she pulled the ice off of her face to glare at Sasha, but instead locked eyes with someone twelve feet away. 

Katya’s heart stopped. _Fuck, you’re gorgeous_ , was the first sentence that came to her mind. Then, everything came rushing back. “Wait,” she blurted. “I know you.” The girl was blonde and wore a headscarf -- yesterday it had been a hoodie. She was staring at Katya with likely the same intensity Katya was staring at her. “You’re,” Katya snapped.“Arkansas? Arizona.” 

“Alaska,” said the girl. 

Katya’s heart flipped. Why hadn’t she realized how insanely gorgeous Alaska was yesterday when she’d woken her up after lecture? Likely because she was in an extreme amount of pain -- but still. The girl must have been six feet tall and was built like a bamboo tree. She wore leggings under a loose tee that read ‘Can I Pet Your Cat?’ and strands of wispy blonde hair escaped her knit headscarf. Katya’s eyes fell to Alaska’s neckline and noticed 1) she wore a key around her neck like Zoey 101 which was pretty cool and 2) slightly below-average sized tits had never been so attractive. 

“So you two know each other?” Sasha prompted after an awkward silence of the two blondes staring intently at each other. 

Alaska opened her mouth. “You have wings.” 

Katya’s dove wings spasmed, as if hearing their name being called. Katya winced and rested her cheek on the ice pack. “Yeah.” 

Sasha stalked over to Alaska’s side by the couch. “Kat, there’s a reason I brought Alaska here -- Lask, you can see you’re safe here,” she said gently. “Would you mind showing us what’s beneath the cardigan?” 

Alaska chewed her lip and looked to Katya, her striking blue eyes half lidded with fatigue. She reached up to pull at the makeshift turban. Alaska felt her cheeks redden with the number of eyes on her as she revealed her horns. Gingerly she laid the now stretched out green knit cardigan over the back of Sasha’s couch. She shook her leg. Everyone was staring at her. Shea looked over at her girlfriend, so adorable and thoughtful. It was so good of her to bring the two freaks together, but Shea could tell from Sasha’s face that she hadn’t thought past this point. 

Shea clapped her hands together as loud as she could, like in Step. Alaska and Katya both startled at the sound and turned to face Shea. 

“Okay,” she said once she had their attention. “I’m thinking of making a wine run and maybe picking up some takeout. Sash and I like rosay — you two good with that?” 

Katya and Alaska nodded in response to Shea’s question before turning back to eyefucking each other. Shea grabbed her keys and wallet before kissing Sasha on the cheek and heading out. 

Katya walked over to Alaska and reached out her finger. Alaska recoiled a little at the invasion of personal space, then Katya offered a friendly little smile. With that Alaska calmed and allowed the winged girl reach out and poke her right horn. 

Katya looked into her eyes while she tapped away with her fingernail. “Can you feel that at all?” 

Alaska quirked her lip sideways. “Nope.” 

Alaska’s eyes flicked over to where Sasha had pulled up a seat a few yards away and was now raking charcoal across a sketchpad. Her forehead creased in concentration as her eyes glanced between her sketching and the two blondes by the couch. 

Katya curled her whole hand around one of Alaska’s horns without her noticing. Only when she tugged did the other react. “Ow!” 

“Sorry! Sorry!” Katya recoiled immediately, her wings seemed to curl slightly around her in penitence. 

Alaska rubbed the scalp at the base of her horn. “I mean they are _attached_.” 

“Sorry.” Katya pushed her hands into the pockets of her shorts to keep from doing any more damage. Her head perked up. “Do you wanna yank one of my feathers?” She offered the tip of one of her wings, ignoring the soreness from her training session with Shea. 

Alaska tentatively reached out, but didn’t quite dare touch the soft white wing. “Can you feel them?” 

“Oh yeah,” said Katya. _Though_ , she thought, _it is strange how it felt so private this morning and now I’m essentially offering up petting privileges to an acquaintance_. 

Alaska pulled back immediately. “Then it isn’t fair -- I’m not gonna pluck you that’s… weird.” 

Katya’s wings thumped on the floor and she glared at Alaska. “That’s what’s weird about this situation?” 

Alaska burst out laughing, and Katya thought it was the best sound she’d ever heard. 

… 

Shea returned with takeout and box wine a little less than an hour later. Sasha sat on a stool, hunched over an oversized sketch pad, a small pile of drawings resting under a charcoal chunk on the floor near her. Shea set her stuff down, opting not to announce her presence on account of the strange scene playing out on the couch. 

Remembering how Katya had flinched away from Shea that morning, as if her wings were something private only to be touched by Katya herself, what she saw now was… puzzling. Shea slowly made her way behind her girlfriend to see how Sasha was interpreting the scene. 

On the page, the couch was see-through, and the two girls sat on it, Alaska with her long legs crossed in front of her, Katya sitting on top of hers. They weren’t looking at each other; Alaska was facing Katya’s back, Katya’s head leaned back, showing off her neck. Represented in both charcoal and flesh in front of them was the obvious stiffness of Katya’s nipples under her thin cotton tank. Shea posited that had something to do with the fact that Alaska has her long fingers sweeping through Katya’s feathers, hooking onto stray bits of twig and pulling them out. Katya shivered and squirmed on top of her heels. 

Shea cleared her throat. Both girls on the couch woke to reality with a start, a blush immediately following. Shea rolled her eyes. _White people blush so damn much_. “I got Korean and box wine.” She motioned toward the counter. 

Katya sprung straight up, jumping the couch like a runner would vault a hurdle, but Katya hadn’t gotten a running start. By the time Shea turned around, the winged woman had a mouth full of grilled pork and was reaching for the Franzia. 

She a look at the three others staring at her. “Wuh?” she said. “You gonna say grace? Dig in!” 

Alaska hung back, unsure. 

“Don’t worry,” said Sasha. “Shea always gets vegetarian options for me.” 

Alaska sighed in thanks and Sasha winked. Finishing up the last lines of her sketch, she reached for Alaska’s hand to join Shea and Katya over at the counter. Alaska reached out, before laughing and pulling back. “You might wanna wash your hands first.” 

Sasha looked down to see her hands were almost completely covered in charcoal dust. “Oh,” she chuckled. “You’re probably right. Shea can help you -- I’ll go wash up.” 

Alaska nodded and made her way over to the others. 

Shea swallowed a mouthful as Alaska approached. “Oh hey -- Sash said you’re vegetarian?” 

Alaska nodded. 

Shea reached for an unopened box of takeout. “You’re not vegan though, right? This has hardboiled egg, that fine?” 

“Yeah,” Alaska breathed, reaching for the box. 

Katya grabbed a solo cup from a cabinet. “You want wine, ‘Lask?” 

“Yes, please.” Alaska opened her takeout box and grabbed at some plastic utensils. A few seconds later a cup was placed in her line of sight by Katya. 

Alaska shook her leg as she speared food on her fork. She clenched her jaw and spaced out a little listening to Shea and Katya tutter about the meat. 

Suddenly there was a nudge on her arm. She looked up to see Katya and Shea watching her intently. She felt hot. “Um, yeah?” Did her voice sound weird? It probably sounded weird. 

Katya pointed her plastic knife at Alaska’s uneaten food. “Something wrong?” 

“Ah…” _No. Just say no because nothing’s wrong_. Alaska looked up with a fake smile and popped her loaded fork into her mouth. _Where’s Sasha?_

Finally, the bathroom door swung open. “God! That charcoal gets into every crevice!” Sasha pulled up a place next to Alaska, who finally allowed herself to swallow. 

Through the rest of the meal, Alaska felt her anxiety release, and she found herself remembering that all she’d had to eat today had been half a pop tart. Though she was the last to start eating, Alaska was the first to finish, scarfing down her food like a preteen about to go through a growth spurt. Even though conversation continued, she couldn’t help but feel like Katya was staring at her. 

The blonde with the horns did everything in her power to avoid looking at the blonde with wings. What had happened? Did Katya misinterpret Alaska’s signals? She could have sworn the supermodel-looking woman had been staring into Katya’s soul just as much as Katya was doing to her. Half the time Shea had been gone, she and Alaska had just spent staring at each other. And it was weird, but it also wasn’t. A lot of their conversation had gone that way, in fact. Katya had filled Alaska in that when she’d checked on her after lecture, she was in pain because her wings had been coming in. Alaska confessed that she had been wearing a hoodie for a similiar reason. Nothing they said sounded like any other conversation. It was intimate. These new things about them were so strange and talking about them felt so vulnerable, yet the characteristics themselves were in everyone’s faces, unable to be hidden. 

_Eventually, Alaska’s eyes kept flickering off to Katya’s side. She spoke up: “Okay, I don’t mean to like, get into your personal space, but I just cannot stand--” She reached over past Katya’s ear and grabbed a piece of tree branch from between Katya’s feathers. Katya’s mouth was agape as Alaska calmly placed the branch on the reclaimed wood coffee table. “Sorry, that was driving me crazy._ ” 

_Katya just blinked in response, her mouth still hanging open. Alaska rolled her eyes and reached out her hand, placing three fingers under Katya’s chin, and closed her mouth for her_. 

_When she finally overcame her shock at just how forward that had been, and also how awkward the space between the two of them was now, Katya realized she had to reciprocate -- she sure as hell wasn’t gonna turn Alaska down. She swallowed and resituated herself. “Uh, do you wanna…” she reached out her right wing, where there were still a ton of dirtied feathers, leaves, and twigs stuck in her fluffy wings. “I can’t -- reach, um_ …” 

_Alaska shook her head and sat straight up. “Oh no, I’d love to. Turn around._ ” 

_Katya had completely spaced out as Alaska freed debris from her wings. Occasionally there’d be a tug, and Katya would grunt in brief pain. Immediately after, Alaska would coo in a surprisingly sweet voice, “sorry, sorry” and return to dragging her fingers through Katya’s soft feathers. She let her eyes close, a sense of comfort slowly spreading throughout her body, like when a girlfriend would play with her hair. Her breathing slowed, and the winged blonde thought she might fall asleep right there, she felt so safe and comfortable. Even when most of the debris was cleared from her wings, Alaska kept on petting through the soft white feathers_. 

That was the scene Shea walked in on, Alaska fascinated by the tactile feeling of Katya’s wings, Katya relaxed and aroused. 

During the meal, Shea had to keep poking her girlfriend to keep her on earth. Sasha got like this when she was in Peak Creative Mode, which was great for her portfolio, but not the best for their relationship. “Babe, you’ve been twirling that noodle around your fork for a good minute,” she told Sasha. 

Sasha squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “Sorry,” she breathed, popping the food into her mouth. 

Alaska bounced on her toes, at a loss for what to do since her food was finished. She’d already cleaned up her area and her takeout box was in the trash. She swirled the wine around her plastic cup and realized she hadn’t even taken a sip yet, she’d scarfed her food down so fast. Not really wanting to talk, and not actually knowing any of these people well enough to steal food off anyone else’s box, Alaska tossed back half of her wine in one swallow -- it gave her mouth something to do. 

When she looked back at the small group of friendly acquaintances, she realized Katya was staring at her. Alaska wiped at her mouth, expecting to have some kind of wine moustache, or lettuce in her teeth or something. 

Katya smiled and looked down into her own cup. “You’re fine,” she said. “It’s just not every day you see a femme knocking back a drink like that -- not outside of a bachelorette party or something.” 

Alaska blushed. “Oh.” She wasn’t exactly sure if that was supposed to be a compliment or not. “Is that bad?” 

“No!” Katya’s eyes bulged. “It’s just I live above a bar -- I bartend and… stuff.” Something made Katya stop herself from mentioning her kind of freelancing. Katya wasn't usually ashamed of her sexual history but... The blonde balled her hand into a fist as if suppressing the urge to reach out and touch Alaska. “Shit,” said Katya. 

“What?” asked Shea. 

Katya brought her plastic cup of wine to her lips. “It’s just… I haven’t checked into work or been to the studio in… yeah it’s been over two days.” 

“Shit,” echoed Shea. “So what? What’s gonna happen?” 

Katya knocked back a big gulp of wine. “Well, my shithead boss said I was on thin ice… a week ago. And if I’m not on the mattress, the owner rents the space out. He probably left me messages but my phone’s been dead since Sasha found me yesterday.” She knocked back the last half of her wine and slammed the plastic cup on the table. “So. I’m out of a job and out of a place to live. That’s fun.” 

“Well, you’re welcome to crash on my sofa as long as you need,” said Sasha, resting a long hand over Katya’s wrist. 

“Thank you,” said Katya honestly. 

“And what kind of phone do you have?” asked Alaska. “Me and my roommates have basically every charger known to man.” 

“Aw, thanks,” said Katya, meeting Alaska’s eyes. “But honestly I never checked it much anyway. Too many people have that number and just… I honestly wanna chuck that shit over a bridge anyway.” She winced. “Is that bad?” 

“No,” said Alaska and Sasha simultaneously. 

“Trust me,” Alaska started. “When me and my ex broke up, I smashed my phone with a hammer so she wouldn’t be able to call me ever again.” 

Something in Katya lit up at the pronoun Alaska had just used. _She likes girls! I wasn’t completely off base! I have a chance_! 

“It’s completely understandable that you want to leave behind the life that phone represented,” said Sasha. “I know you weren’t happy with that life anyway.” 

Katya suddenly felt very exposed, and found herself walking back to the box to press down the tab and refill her cup, just as a way of getting away from the others. How Sasha managed to be so insightful and right about everything was unnerving; someone that quiet shouldn’t be able to know so much and understand people so well. 

Katya turned around after refilling her cup, reentering to the conversation. 

“Speaking of, ‘Laska, what are you gonna do? I mean it’s not exactly like you can just show back up at your dorm lookin’ like Maleficent and just… be normal at this point.” 

Katya’s heart broke watching Alaska’s face fall. She saw the realization hit. She couldn’t go home. She couldn’t go to class. The headscarf had worked, but for how long could she get away with that? They were a middle America school -- not an overabundance of girls covering their hair, and the few Muslim students they had wouldn’t wear a headcovering that beehived on top of their heads. 

“‘Lask,” Sasha reached out, but Alaska backed away. The bald girl bit her lip. “Hey, ‘Lask, we’ll figure something out, okay?” 

Alaska shook her head. “No, no Katya’s right. I’m a freak, I can never be normal again, I can’t have friends, I can’t…” Tears cascaded down her long cheeks. She felt numb and cold, lightheaded. All she wanted was to sink to the floor, curl into a ball, and weep. Like after the breakup, like the days where she didn’t want to live. Alaska had pledged to never go there again, but honestly the darkness was preferable to this. 

Katya felt the air being sucked out of her, like a ghost passing through her center. There were echoey words in her head and she saw Alaska pulling back, back into herself to a place she never wanted to go. Katya recognized the place Alaska was headed, and she saw the thoughts that pulled her into The Dark like a lasso, caught around her middle and dragging her away. 

Katya set down her wine and briskly walked around Shea to get to Alaska, who was backing herself against the couch, looking sickly pale. Her wings fluffed up, but Katya kept them up and away from any of the food or drink. “Alaska.” Katya grabbed the girls hands. 

It was as if the darkness slunk away from her, leaving her panting and lost. Katya’s eyes reached for hers, and it was so intimate and so frightening and Alaska was grieving the loss of life she hadn’t had a chance to live. 

But so was Katya. 

She found the strength to lift her gaze, and found Katya’s face. So close, and dazzling. All she could see were those eyes, and behind her fanned out pure white wings, and above her the most golden of light. The black tornado in Alaska’s mind stilled. 

Katya leaned forward, connected their lips, and Alaska’s thoughts fell apart. Katya felt the panic melt in Alaska’s mind and she didn’t know how, but it worked. 

Katya pulled back, just enough for them to still share the same air. “I’m sorry, I should have asked first.” 

Alaska crushed her lips against Katya’s, hungry and desperate. 

Shea grabbed her girlfriend’s arm, waking her up from just staring as the girl with the wings and the girl with the horns clutched at each other. 

“What?” asked Sasha. 

Shea led her toward the stairs. “Let’s give them some space to do what they do.” 

Sasha pouted as she followed Shea up the stairs. “But it’s such an interesting visual! The dichotomy of the two forms against each other and yet working together—“ 

Shea spun around and silenced her girlfriend with a kiss. Sasha let the subject drop. 

Katya grabbed Alaska by the waist and backed her against the couch. 

Alaska held Katya’s cheek with one hand and brushed the other through Katya’s (still windblown) hair. Katya pressed her knee between Alaska’s and pulled her lips away from Alaska’s mouth, only to trail kisses along her jaw, up to her earlobe and back down. 

Alaska stiffened against her and pressed her palms against Katya’s chest. The other immediately pulled back to check in and see what was up. 

Alaska breathed hard “It's just,” she shook her head “Stupid.” 

Katya leaned back. “No, tell me, do you want to stop?” 

“No!” Alaska blurted. 

Katya tried to suppress the smile that followed. 

Alaska’s eyes wandered up the decorated walls. “It’s just… can you, do something else? That thing with the jaw is…” she met Katya’s eyes briefly, embarrassment coloring her cheeks. “Something my ex used to do.” 

“I completely understand,” Katya assured. “Something else, hmm.” She reached for Alaska’s hand and led her around to sit together on the couch she’d crashed on last night. Where she’d had That Fantasy. 

Alaska leaned back as Katya hiked up the side of her top, gripping Alaska’s waist and exploring her torso with her soft hand. She kept her eyes open while Katya kissed her way across her collarbone. Alaska pressed her thighs together, a bruise already forming between her knees. _This is okay_ , she reminded herself. _I like this, and it’s okay. It’s not bad. This can stop whenever I want it to, and I want it to keep going_. Her anxiety lessened; she thought her counselor would be proud of her. Or maybe her counselor would want her to live in the moment rather than having an ongoing internal monologue while a beautiful woman's mouth was on her neck. 

Alaska reached for Katya’s shoulders and pulled her back up so their lips met. Again, her overthinking fell away when she was kissing Katya. 

She kept kissing Katya, and grabbed her by the waist, leading her up, stretching Katya out so Alaska was on top of her. Alaska was the one pressing her mouth against Katya’s reddening neck. She could feel Katya’s heart race beneath her tongue. She lowered herself down so she could fully straddle the other blonde, and tightened her thighs around Katya’s hips. Looking down, she couldn’t help flicking her eyes to where Katya’s nipples strained against her cotton top. 

Katya saw where her eyes were, and sat up so she could reach behind her back and undo the ties. Without those to hold the backless cotton tank top on, the fabric fell away, making Alaska’s mouth water. Her eyes flickered briefly to Katya’s face. The other blonde smirked, knowing exactly what Alaska wanted. Katya lay back down and stretched her arms above her head, inviting Alaska in. 

Alaska massaged and kissed and sucked and nipped, loving Katya’s chest with her mouth. Given the soft moans Katya released and how pert her nipples were, Alaska assumed Katya was enjoying it too. Briefly, Alaska felt a pang in her backside, but disregarded the feeling, as it passed as soon as it came. 

And then it was back, and Alaska was not clear on what exactly she was feeling, but it was weird. Her eyes went wide, and she bit her lip. “Um, Katya, could you help me get my pants off?” 

“Oh fuck yes!” Katya agreed immediately, and pulled the waist of Alaska’s leggings down, only to meet resistance, like the waistband had caught on something. 

Alaska helped squirm out of her leggings, and grabbed at the base of her spine. “Don’t freak out, don’t. Freak. Out.” She wasn’t sure if she was talking to herself or to Katya, as she pulled an actual _imp tail_ from under her clothes. 

Katya gaped. “Whoa…” She poked at the heart shaped tip of Alaska’s tail. It looked red, the same color as her horns. When Katya touched the tip of the new appendage, Alaska’s whole body seemed to shudder. 

“Sorry,” she breathed. “Did that hurt?” 

Alaska’s eyes were still the size of saucers. “No. It’s just. I.” She cleared her throat nervously and looked back down at Katya. “It’s sensitive.” 

Katya cocked her head to one side. “Can you move it?” 

Alaska bit her lip and thought about it. When she tried… “Oh holy shit.” 

Katya pouted. “That’s just not fair. It took me a full day to learn how to control these things.” She picked up a wall of feathers she’d contained so that her wings lay flat beneath her. “And I still don’t trust them.” She shoved the wing back under her and shimmied a little to get comfortable again. 

Alaska took her tail in her hand. The actual tail itself seemed maybe two feet long, and was about as thick around as her middle finger. And wherever she touched it felt super sensitive, almost ticklish. But the spade on the end, when she touched that a full body shiver rippled through her. 

A good shiver. 

“Anyway,” said Katya. “Want to continue?” 

Alaska looked between Katya and her tail. “Yeah,” she said cautiously. 

“Yeah, let’s do this.” She leaned down to meet Katya’s lips again. 

. 

Sasha had exactly 45 seconds to check in on them. Shea was timing her. She just had to see what those two were up to! 

When she hit the stairs overlooking the living area, Sasha’s jaw hit the floor. “Oh my goddess.” 

Katya was topless -- that was nothing new -- her wings fanned out beneath her like a feather blanket. Alaska’s top was still on, but her leggings had been discarded and sticking out of her panties was a fucking TAIL! The art student couldn’t believe it! “Shea!” she scream-whispered. “You’ve gotta give me back my oils. I HAVE to paint this.” 

Shea poked her head around the corner, briefly took in the situation downstairs, and simply walked over to her girlfriend, picked her up under her knees and shoulders, and carried her back into the loft.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/n-2: feel free to bow at the feet of @ArtificialEevee, without whom you would not have a chapter, let alone one this grammatically sound. Also without her this shit would be literally FULL of continuity errors bc i kinda don't care abt continuity even though it’s important bc it’s boring.


	5. Brutal Honesty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katya discovers a new ability and has a deep conversation with Alaska after a mind-meld. Cat-about-town Jerick discovers something weird, and he’s fairly certain it’s his sister’s fault. Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content and trigger warnings for showing bad thought spirals and mentions of eating disorder. I tried to give you some levity in between the heavy stuff though, it’s not all angsty! I stole the idea of having Jinkx and Jerick as 2 different entities, one being a cat from Debbie on AQ

“Hi there,” chirped a young woman with a bag slung over her shoulder. She led with her hand out, and moved slowly. “I’m Roxxxy, are you friendly?”

Jerick nipped at her fingers and smirked inwardly when Roxxxy jumped. He flicked his tail and tilted his head.

The girl, Roxxxy, laughed uncomfortably and turned to leave him alone.

It was then that Jerick decided this human passed the test, respected his boundaries, and was worthy of his presence. He pounced from the footwall to the cement walkway and slid straight in front of the girl’s feet.

Roxxxy giggled and stopped -- she couldn’t really move anyway -- while the strange calico cat gently pushed his head against her shin and pawed at her sock. “Oh, so you _are_ friendly?” She reached down to pet him on the head.

Jerick started purring and rubbing more against the girl’s leg. He closed his eyes and let Roxxxy give him The Good Pets and Scratches. Roxxxy reached her hand down to his side and slowly pulled him off of the ground and into her arms, holding him like a baby.

 _Oh Goddess, yes_ , thought Jerick as he burrowed his face into Roxxxy’s cleavage.

The girl laughed. “Oh my God, you little perv! Well, you’re a Calico, so you must be a girl, I guess.” She returned to scratching his head. “Is it warm in there, babygirl?” Roxxxy pressed a kiss to Jerick’s furry head.

 _Oh, if I were human_ , he lamented, smelling the girl’s clean clothes and feeling her soft skin under his paws.

Roxxxy started to shift her weight and Jerick prepared to be set down.

“Sorry, babygirl,” she cooed as she returned him to earth. “Love to stay and cuddle, but I gotta go to class now.”

Jerick sat down and watched her bounce away -- how he loved watching girls like her leave. He took in a deep breath and prepared to scout for other options…

His hair stood straight up. He had been so caught up in the cuddles that he’d neglected to notice what was so familiar about Roxxxy’s scent until he caught a much stronger whiff of the same -- but not from Roxxxy. He jumped to his feet and took in a big sniff as he turned his body completely around, searching like a bloodhound, but way cuter.

Jerick had smelled _magic_. Woodsy and dusty and electrified, like black licorice and crystals. He’d smelled it faintly on Roxxxy -- it was days old -- but this big trace, it was brand new. Jerick started to track it.

He weaved his way down one walkway, over fresh-cut grass that almost made him lose track of the scent and past a food stand that cluttered his nose, until he finally caught up with a hairless girl looking straight at the ground.

***

Katya woke up because one of Alaska’s horns was half a centimeter into her nostril. Her eyes fluttered open and she immediately spluttered, clutching her nose and having a minor heart attack until she remembered last night.

Alaska whined but pulled herself off of Katya and rubbed her eyes. She, too, had a moment of panic looking down at the platinum blonde woman with dove wings sticking out of her back. “Oh,” she said.

Katya blinked. “Yeah.”

There were a few seconds where the two just stared at each other, the morning light filtered through the mostly-covered window.

Alaska looked down and had another minor panic before she realized she still had her shirt on. Katya was topless, but still wearing her short shorts. Alaska was down to her panties, and there was a tail sticking out of her left leghole, but nothing had happened last night she would regret. Katya hadn’t seen. Thank God.

She did have a minor wine headache, and dismounted the other blonde to back against the other side of the couch and gently rub at her temples.

She felt Katya pull herself into a sitting position and noted the breeze created when she let her wings out.

Katya sighed. “I can’t decide if they’re still sore from yesterday or from both of us sleeping on top of them.”

Alaska smiled politely and squeezed her eyes shut. _Maybe I can will this not to turn into a migraine_.

“What’s wrong?” asked Katya, her voice croaky from sleep.

_Was she actually drunk last night? Is she regretting everything? Why do I want her to not regret last night so bad?!_

“Ah,” Alaska whispered. She turned away from the window. “It’s nothing just, ah, could you maybe lower the pitch of your voice?” she gritted her teeth. _Oh yeah, this is gonna be a bad one._

“You’re getting a migraine,” stated Katya.

Alaska winced. “Do you know where Sasha’s medicine cabinet is? If she even has one?”

Katya knew Sasha’s medicine cabinet only had some essential oils and vegan toothpaste. For a second Katya was ready to jump up and run to the nearest corner store, before she remembered her wingspan. She bit her lip. Something was itching at her inside, and she didn’t know why or how, but… Katya had an idea.

“Migraine?” she asked in a low voice. “Like splitting your head in two? Right down the middle?”

Alaska’s mouth flashed with chagrin.

Katya leaned over on her haunches and reached out a hand. What was she doing? What was she hoping to accomplish? She brushed hair out of Alaska’s face.

Alaska winced a little at the sudden contact, but didn’t push Katya away. “What are you doing?” she asked through clenched teeth.

Katya bit her lip. “I don’t really know.”

Katya closed her eyes and imagined her fingers on Alaska’s face, pictured a line going through the other’s head. A red, pulsing, dotted line showing tension and pain. Katya pictured this, and she pictured light -- yellow light spreading out in tendrils from her palm and fingers, imagined the light winding around the red lines like ivy on a wall. She imagined her light relaxing away the red, choking it and breaking it down. She felt Alaska relax beside her, but Katya didn’t really know what she was doing until she was done.

***

Jerick scratched at the giant window. He’d tracked the scent of magic here from the bald girl, traversing rooftops and ignoring a delicious smelling hot dog stand for his mission. His senses told him this great concrete buildings among the rest of the concrete and steel buildings, was the one. He felt it in his thin cat bones.

Mostly the space inside was empty -- parking garages that smelled like petrol and cigarettes -- but the third floor up, that one had promise. From the outside looking in, he caught very little of what smells were going on inside, but immediately he knew this was where the hotspot was.

Which frustrated Jerick to no end, as whoever was inside this illegal magical meetingplace, had covered the windows from the inside! He tried to peer through posters and plastic bags, scratching at the old glass in a frustration. It was right here, whoever they were, they were practicing magic on his sister’s turf, and they were gonna be so busted… once Jerick figured out how to get inside. Or managed to find a place to spy through the window.

After some disgruntled pacing, Jerick became aware of light coming from inside the room. Not electrical light or candle light, _magical_ light. Someone was casting a spell -- oh he _had_ to find a way to see inside of there!

He cast his cat eyes up to the absolute top of the window, so high up the tenant must not have been able to hang anything there. Jerick’s tail flicked back and forth. The light inside built -- it would be over soon enough, he didn’t have another option.

Jerick closed his eyes and made sure his paws had sure flooring on the breezy ledge before he reached inside himself and pulled out of his physical form, the world around him fading into the ghostly, wobbly realm Astral projection showed it to be. The magical auras from inside the building were far more obvious now, white light rippling out from what looked like a human form, but not a quite right human form. This was no sorceress, and it also wasn’t a daemon -- what in Hecate?

Jerick felt his spirit rise in the liquid of the universe to the top of the high window. He looked through the flimsy matter and _saw_.

Jerick snapped back into his furry body in an instant, adrenaline flooding his blood vessels and spurring his paws forward. He bounded down a lamppost, up the street and climbed a stairwell to travel by rooftop once again. He practically screamed over his psychic link.

 _Sistersistersistersistersistersister_!

Her thoughts were groggy on the other side.

 _Gawdess_ , what _Jerick_?

Jerick lept into the back of a pickup truck headed for the west side of the city.

 _You won’t_ believe _what a fuckup you are_!

He felt her thoughts tinge with nerves and shame on the other side.

 _Okay, if you’re gonna be mean and wake me up before seven a.m. I’m calling the vet and getting you neutered_.

Jerick hissed. He could only hope Jinkx heard it over the line.

_____

“What…?” asked Alaska in disbelief.

“I don’t know,” said Katya.

“But how?”

“I don't know!” Katya threw up her hands.

Alaska grabbed Katya by her wrists and pulled them down to the sides. “No, seriously, HOW?”

“I am telling you, I have no _fucking_ clue.” Katya’s blue eyes were honest. “I just… did a thing.”

Alaska leaned back on her haunches. “You healed my migraine. How the fuck --”

“I just kinda knew?” Katya folded her arms across her naked chest. “Like… when you’ve not done something in a long time and you start it again and it all comes flooding back to you? I _knew_ , that I knew what to do,” she paused. “If that makes any sense.”

“It doesn’t, really.” Alaska brushed her fingers through her tangled hair. “But I’m glad you did it.”

Katya looked up. “Really? How are you feeling?”

Alaska shook her head in surprise. Honestly, she felt like she’d just taken a cold shower after doing a shot of espresso and a morning run -- she felt _fantastic_. But maybe she didn’t want to tell Katya quite all that. “Like I said -- you cured my migraine.” She shrugged.

“I… wow.”

“Yeah.”

…

…

The silence was broken by Katya’s stomach growling. Katya went red and Alaska burst out laughing.

“Feel like raiding Sasha’s kitchen?” asked Alaska through laughter.

Katya sprang up from the couch into midair, her wings fanning out and carrying her five extra steps away from where she’d lifted off. Alaska watched in half-wonder and half jealousy as Katya glided across the studio to the fridge.

A thought crossed Alaska’s mind and she felt cold hit her gut. She searched the floor and found her discarded leggings from last night. Her new tail protested the whole way, but she managed to cram it into her left leg. “I feel like the tail needs a name,” she remarked loudly so Katya would hear her fifteen feet away.

“Okay, One, I have working ears, you don’t need to shout, and Two, I think the wings deserve a name too.” She slammed a cabinet closed after pulling out a blue cardboard box from deep inside.

Alaska’s eyebrows lowered seeing the brand on the box. “Sasha does not strike me as the girl who would have Pop-Tarts in her possession.”

“She is not.” Katya crossed the room in what felt like record time and was back on the couch next to Alaska, prying open the seal in less than a minute. “Shea hides processed foods for special treats when Sasha is off in Artist Land.”

Alaska shrugged. “Work.”

Katya had the box open and handed Alaska a foil packet. Alaska’s pulse hastened. She pressed her lips together. _This is fine_ , she tried to think. _I can eat this and it will be fine_. She tried not to seem conspicuous as she slowly tried to open her packet. Katya was already swallowing her first bite.

 _You’re sweating, it’s obvious_ . Alaska cleared her throat. “So where is everybody?” _Your voice is scratchy she can tell, she’ll know you’re weird._

Katya was saying something but there were waves crashing in Alaska’s ears. _You don’t have your meds, you forgot to take them yesterday you can’t go back to your dorm ohshitohshitohshit_.

“What meds?” asked Katya, prodding Alaska on the arm. She stuffed another hunk of Pop-Tart into her mouth.

Alaska paused in her inner tirade. “Wha-- what?” _Your voice is weak, she knows, how does she know, she’ll see you for just how weak you are_.

Katya raised her hand in front of her mouth so she could talk while chewing. “Missed your pills or something? I’m sure we can get Shea or Sash to drop by your old dorm and grab--”

Alaska raised her hand. “No, no. I didn’t _say_ anything about that.”

Katya swallowed and looked at Alaska confused. “You must have.”

Alaska shook her head.

“But I _heard_ you loud and clear,” her brows furrowed. “And then something about me thinking you’re weak, which is ridiculous.”

“Okay, that,” Alaska put down her processed food packet. “I _know_ I didn’t say aloud.”

Katya stared down at the couch cushions. “Do me a favor,” she said slowly.

Alaska leaned back and rested her cheek on her palm, trying to convince her body she was at ease. “‘Kay.”

“I want you to… imagine… something.”

“Like what?”

“Like… a scene. A memory, something you know really well.”

Alaska contemplated the coffee table and tried to imagine. Which memory? What even…

But before she could think about it too hard, her mind made itself up.

_Crowded house party. The game was bad this week—our team got utterly creamed and they were drinking to forget it. There was less talking and actual enjoyment tonight, more hollow vibes. It was a house full of people who didn’t really want to be there but didn’t want to be alone more._

_My stomach felt like it dropped more and more every second my girlfriend went unseen. She’d promised, she’d stay clean, for me._

_I down half my drink and winced. Why beer had to taste like horse piss I don’t know, but I'm not going to fuck with the liquor cabinet tonight. It wasn't worth it._

_Finishing my third loop of the ground floor, I resolve to check upstairs. Maybe Sharon is in a bedroom? It's far too early for her to be passed out. Bathroom maybe? I shudder. I had told myself I’d wait, not crowd Sharon. But this party is agony; all I want is to go home. I climb the stairs._

_On the second floor I walked in on a three-way makeout/dry hump session. There was also an introvert curled in a ball next to a power outlet from which her phone was charging, but no Sharon._

Maybe she went for a walk? _I think desperately. It's cold. Nobody is outside — it's after midnight and 30 degrees out (-1 C). With ever-increasing disappointment, I trudge down the stairs, and open the door to the basement._

_Immediately choked by the smell of smoke and sweat and weed — and maybe vomit — I cough. I hear a yell from below: “You comin down or what? Don’t just stand there lettin’ all the good air out!”_

_I pull my sweatshirt over my nose and breathe in. I can still taste the toxicity in the air. Halfway down the squeaky wooden steps, I hear an utterly unmistakable peal of laughter. And I freeze. Should I even be down here? Should I just leave?_ Sharon would be mad — you’re not giving her the benefit of the doubt. You just assume she’s partaking, she could just be down here hanging out…

_“Okay,” Sharon’s boots hit the concrete floor. Her voice is not sober. “Me next.”_

_I hear chopping sounds and I feel like dying._

_“Hey, girl,” says a voice from the corner. “This ain’t the place you pass out.”_

_I disregard the tip and feel my feet move around the outcropping of wall that hid the glass table from view. There is a loud sniffing sound and Sharon’s silver-dyed hair spilled over the side of her face, dripping onto the table as her head followed a white powder line. I feel queasy._

_Sharon throws her head back and hands her nose funnel to whoever was next. At first she squints up at me, not seeming to recognize me. When she does, a sickly wide smile spreads across her mouth and she springs to her feet._

_“‘Lassskyyy!” She seemed to swing her body at me like a battering ram. I stumbled back a little on impact; I feel so weak, like I'm not all here._

_Sharon leans her head into my neck. I sigh. She's warm. I think I might want to die, just for a little while. Mostly I'm choking with dread and I don't want to be here._

_Sharon looks up at me with blown-out eyes. What I just saw wasn't her first bump of the night. “I am. So happy. You. Decided. To. Join. Us!” With each pause she taps somewhere on my face._

_I pull away and hold Sharon by the wrists. “I’m_ not _joining you.”_

_Sharon pushes out her bottom lip and stomps her foot. “Whyyy?”_

_I roll my eyes and prepare for the usual ‘Alright Sharon, let’s take you home and take care of you and sacrifice our own self care’ speech. Turns out, I don't have to._

_A girl in the back of the basement pipes up. “Hey Shar! This the girlfriend you talked about? The bulimic headcase?”_

_Sharon gleefully leans back to address the girl in the back. “The very same!” She clutches me by the jaw. “I’n’t she cute?!”_

_I freeze. Nobody knows —_ nobody _. Feebly, I pry Sharon’s hand off my face and clasp it in both of my own. Sharon kisses the back of my hand. I can't look at her. My eyes are fixed on the back wall. The girl who’d referred to me as…_

_Sharon slid around to my left side, winding her unoccupied hand around my waist like a python getting in position to strangle. “Oh yeah, so some people know about the whole bulimia thing it kinda slipped out — I didn’t think it was a big deal, I’m not ashamed or anything.”_

_“It’s not…” my voice cracks. I drop Sharon’s hand and pull the other off the small of  my back. “It’s not for_ you _to be ashamed of.”_

_Sharon tilts her head. I her her completely, her dilated pupils, her fucked up hair; and all of it utterly disgusts me._

_I shake my head and back away. “I… can’t believe you would… do something like this.”_

_“Something like what? ‘Lasky, you aren’t making any sense.” Sharon tried to bridge the gap between us, reaching out her arms to rest her hands on my shoulders._

_I pull away. “_ No _,” I insist, skirting Sharon’s advances._

_Sharon stumbles forward, crashing face-first into the polished cinder block wall. “Owwww!”_

_I am fresh out of sympathy. Something burns white hot inside me. “You_ promised _,” I growl._

_Sharon turned around rubbing her forehead. “Ow, really, ‘Lasky, that hurt.” She reached for my hands._

_I slap her away, making Sharon recoil in complete shock. I think the pain on Sharon’s face from that little rejection is sweet, and I want more of it._

_“How could you do this to me, Sharon, really?”_

_“Do_ what _?” Sharon whined. She stomped her foot again like a petulant child. “I don’t understaaand why you’re being mean to me!”_

 _“_ I’m _being mean?!” I echo in disbelief. “You tell me no more drugs; you tell me it’s final, you’ve learned your lesson — I_ believe _you and I tell you something incredibly private because you care about me — only for your cokehead ass to go around telling anyone who’ll give you a bump!”_

_I was screaming and shoving Sharon, who whimpered and cried. A small crowd had gathered around us; a few cell phone cameras recorded the encounter. I didn’t care. I didn’t care if this video went out to colleges and future employers because nothing mattered anymore._

_Nothing._

_No thing._

_Nothingnothingnothingmattersnothing—_

“Alaska.”

Katya was holding her hand. Alaska came back to her senses. She felt completely naked.

Katya swallowed and thankfully filled the silence. “So… that was a lot.”

Alaska barked a laugh and shook her head. She couldn’t look at Katya. She couldn’t look at herself. Remembering that night, the betrayal, how she'd reacted -- she felt disgusting.

“Um, so I caught most of that. I don’t know how… I know I caught Shea a couple nights ago, she was thinking about me and how weird the whole wing situation is… and I knew she was thinking about me but it wasn nothing specific like…” she shook her head. “But I caught that -- do you, want me to get you something? Some water?”

Alaska pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her calves. “Sure.”

A breeze later, Katya was back with ice water and a hand between Alaska’s shoulder blades.

Katya sensed the dark pulling at Alaska, like it had last night. She chewed her lip. Maybe she couldn’t solve this episode like she had the last one. Katya jiggled her leg. “I don’t know…” she started. “I don’t know what to say.”

Alaska rested her head on her knees, facing away from Katya. “Be honest,” her voice was shaky. “Tell me how disgusting and sad I am and that you don’t want anything to do with me.”

Katya’s wings actually _fwomp-_ ed to the floor in shock. “You what? No!” Katya shook her head feverishly. “Nononononono -- that’s not,” she did a laugh/exhale. “That is so not what I was honestly thinking?” She wanted to say ‘how could you think that?’ but Katya was fully aware that you don’t always control your thoughts. “No, I was thinking I want to help you, but I don’t know how.”

Alaska looked up for a moment and squinted at the wall, thinking. After a while she said, “You fixed my head once already.” She turned her gaze to the angel beside her.

Katya’s eyebrows and wings perked up with the realization. “What? Oh, um, I don't know, I mean it’s more complicated than that, I think, I don’t wanna--”

Alaska held up her pointer finger, shushing Katya. “Try. I want you to try.”

Katya curled away slightly. She wanted to help Alaska, more than anything she wanted to help. But… “I might fuck up and hurt you, though.”

Alaska let out a hopeless chuckle. “I don’t know how it can’t not get worse from here. I’m officially 48 hours since my last dose. That migraine was probably among the first of _many_ withdrawal symptoms.” She reached for Katya’s hand and stared daggers into her blue eyes. “ _Try_.”

Katya swallowed the fear in her throat and nodded slowly. She watched a little bit of hope flash across Alaska’s face and she knew what she had to do.

“I feel like…” Katya resituated herself. She reached her hands up to Alaska’s temples and settled her fingers there, hooked slightly around the base of Alaska’s horns for support. She closed her eyes. “Okay.”

Katya tried to do like she had before, picture Alaska’s head as a collection of matter, the problems obvious, standing out, but that wasn’t how it was this time. She saw now Alaska’s head and body restrained by black smoky ropes, ever-tightening and ever-lowering, sucking her down, loosening just to get a better grip and pull her down again. She knew what she needed to do, but Katya was frozen, restricted somehow.

“I need,” she said slowly. “I need you to… let me in.”

There was tension, ruefully released in a few seconds, and Katya could move. She reached out to touch one of the black tendrils with a glowing hand, and immediately heard thoughts like radio static flooding her mind.

_No good weak useless worthless hopeless wasteofspaceneedyuselessfatugly_

Katya recoiled and swatted at the ropes that had attacked her. They disintegrated like smoke when she put her hand through, and she heard Alaska sigh in relief.

This time, Katya prepared herself for the attack, but she still wasn’t fast enough to strike before getting hit with a string of

_nobody-actually-likes-you-they-feel-bad-for-you-because-you're-going-nowhere-doomed-to-fail-live-in-a-cardboard-box-hook-for-money-get-AIDS-die-alone-on-a-park-bench_

Katya coughed the smoke away and again it evaporated at her touch. “Oh God,” she said, her eyes still closed. “How long have you lived with these?”

Alaska shrugged sadly but honestly. “Puberty. Got bad junior year though.”

 _Due to a certain stressor,_ Katya watched the thought whip by like a dragonfly, attached to images of a certain ex.

There was one major tendril left, and though Katya felt that Alaska would be happy with what she’d achieved so far, and could handle one bad thought at a time, while she was in this place, Katya figured she might as well finish what she started.

This cord was especially strong -- it hit Katya like pepper spray to the face and blotted out everything else for a moment.

_Bulimic-headcase-unlovable-self-absorbed-self-obsessed-blind-selfish-attention-seeking-whore-don’t-look-bulimic-must-be-faking-attention-whore_

Katya gasped as if she were coming up for air after a near-drowning. She was back in the living room, and something inside her felt bruised. Katya grabbed at the top of her head, trying to soothe some kind of phantom limb above her scalp. “What the hell?”

She closed her eyes and tried to go back in, only to bounce right back like she’d run into a rubber wall. “Ow,” she pressed her fingers into her own temples. “Sorry,” she said through clenched teeth.

Alaska threw her arms around Katya’s shoulders, sending them both to the couch cushions. Katya reached feebly trying to hug Alaska back, but she’d almost completely lost her bearings.

“Thank you,” Alaska whispered into Katya’s ear. She quickly pecked Katya on her ear lobe, then on the corner of her jaw, and back to her ear. “Thank you thank you thank you.”

Katya shifted her weight under Alaska — her wings did not appreciate being squished so soon again. “Don’t go worshipping at my feet yet,” she sighed. “The bad thoughts will come back — I can’t get rid of them forever.”

Alaska pushed herself up on her elbows to gaze down at Katya. _She saw_ , Alaska thought. _She saw The Bad and she fought it off and she thinks I care that it’ll come back_? She shook her head and smiled.

“What?” asked Katya.

Alaska leaned down and connected their lips once again. She smiled into the kiss, and didn’t struggle when Katya flipped positions.

They stopped when Alaska’s stomach growled.

Katya laughed a wheezy, flailing laugh and backed off.

Alaska sighed, mostly disappointed that they couldn’t keep making out. She grabbed her discarded Pop-Tart package and shifted her weight uncomfortably on the couch.

“What is it?” asked Katya.

Alaska pursed her lips. “It’s not that I have a problem with you knowing, it’s just…” She felt herself going red. “Could you… not? Look at me? While I eat? It’s just—“

Katya was already swiveled around on the sofa, turned completely away from Alaska, though their sides still touched. “Come on, sit back to back with me.”

Alaska felt warmth spread through her chest. She broke off half the processed pastry and took a bite before shuffling so her and Katya’s spines poked each other. She felt the soft feathers of Katya’s wings against her back like big fluffy cushions.

“Okay,” said Alaska after swallowing her first bite. “Now you know this deeply personal thing about me — you have to tell me something about you.”

Katya sigh/exhaled again. “Uhhh…”

“It’s okay if you don’t have anything that crazy — I kind of am the queen of being a fucking mess.” Alaska spoke around her second bite of processed pastry.

Katya rubbed her fingers across her forehead. “Ah, it’s not that…” _Just say it, she’s bound to learn sometime, what if she judges me, she’s not into me anymore—_

Alaska nudged Katya playfully. “What, then? Come on, I won’t judge.”

Before Katya could think better of it, she blurted: “IUSEDTOHAVESEXFORMONEY!”

***

_Ya done fucked up. Ya done fucked up. Ya done fucked up. Ya done--_

“I hear you, jerk,” called the redhead from the cottage door.

The calico cat pranced up the dirt path, his tail flicking smugly from side to side as he approached his sister. Jerick bounded easily past her feet and inside.

He went to his cat castle, and climbed to a perch that was eye level with Jinkx. “Ya done fucked up, sis,” he teased aloud.

Jinkx closed the door behind her with a huff. “Yeah, I got that from the singing. You really didn’t let up on the line until you got home. I was impressed.” Jinkx scowled and blew her bangs out of her face.

“Wanna know exactly _how_ you fucked up?”

The wood furnishings in the room groaned.

“Excuse my language, Eileen!” Jerick shouted at the walls. The wood settled, pacified.

To Jinkx, he said “I would ask if you could bless the house so Eileen didn’t make a fuss every time I swore, but since you already cursed two random college girls--”

“I _what_ ?” Jinkx clutched the green labradorite pendant at the base of her throat. _Dammit rock, you’re supposed to protect me_.

Jerick licked his paw -- he’d done an awful lot of running this morning -- and calmly explained about the magical hot spot, and how he’d tracked it to a building. “And what did I find but _two_ cursed humans?” He side-eyed his sister. “One had giant-ass white wings sticking out of her back, and the other had baby ram’s horns, and I might have seen a tail sticking out of her leggings.” He rolled onto his back, stretching out his spine. “Plus, angel girl had, like, light bulb head going on.”

Eileen didn’t bother reproaching Jerick this time, the conversation had turned too weird for the house ghost to keep eavesdropping.

Jinkx’ face wrinkled in concentration. “What?”

“Hey, I’m just telling you what I saw.”

Jinkx walked over to her altar, examining every rune and candle. What could she possibly have done wrong? She hadn’t done any magic since--

“Oh.”

Jerick effortlessly rolled off his perch and landed on all four feet. He trotted over to Jinkx and paced a figure 8 around her calves. “Whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout, sissy?”

Jinkx ran over to her purse and pulled the fraying strap over her shoulder. “I gotta go,” she announced, flitting to the ceramic bowl that housed her car key. “You’re taking me there.”

“I’m what, now?” Jerick’s claws ate into the carpet. He’d only just got home!

Jinkx hustled through the foyer, past the kitchen and the back room, out the back door. Jerick followed ruefully behind. The witch could only hope the charm on the shed still worked.

With a snap of her fingers, the small rickety garage door pulled up, tugging weeds out of the ground and prompting insects to scurry out of the sunlight that started to leak into the long-forgotten storage shed. Jerick darted after a lizard that retreated into the shadows.

Jinkx grabbed the edge of the off-white tarp that had lain on the old car for two years. Slamming her key into the door lock, Jinkx opened her driver’s side door and hauled herself inside. The witch had to search for the ignition it had been so long. “Jerick!” she called. “Come on! Get in the Saturn!”

Jerick looked back at his sister with a limp lizard in his mouth. “Ve Sa-hurn? Rearry?” he questioned around the dead creature.

“What did you say--oh GODDESS!” Jinkx glanced at her brother only to turn away horrified. “HOLY HECATE PUT THE GECKO DOWN!”

Jerick chomped down, slicing his prey in half before launching into the passenger seat, the remaining half still in his mouth. “I just caught this,” he pouted, stuffing his food into one side of his mouth so he could talk.

Jinkx turned the key in the ignition and tried to breathe around the smell of the garage and her brother’s snack. The saturn wheezed and revved, pulled back to life around years of dust.

The witch focused on pulling out of the tiny garage without damaging anything, and did her best to avoid looking to her right. She did catch a glance through her peripheral vision. Jerick was always a messy eater. “Gaia, Jer! You’re getting guts all over the upholstery!”

The cat swallowed hard. “I’ll clean it up,” he said, bending down to lap up the remains.

Jinkx pulled onto the main dirt road jittering all over. “Whatever happened to ‘Do No Harm'?” she moaned.

Jerick licked his chops. “That ended when I got transfigured into a carnivore.” He examined the seat for any more leftovers. “And who’s fault was that, by the way?”

Jinkx swerved abruptly, sending Jerick hurtling into the side door. “Hey!”

Jinkx cackled.

Jerick hissed. “I can’t wear a seatbelt -- that could have been really dangerous!”

Jinkx scoffed. “Since when have you given a shit about danger?”

The cat scowled, but remained silent.

“Mhm, I thought so.”

***

Alaska listened to Katya talk and tried her best to keep her expression neutral. Katya had had it hard, struggling with her own mental health issues, stubbornly refusing any help offered to her. At least when someone propositioned her for sex in exchange for money, it was on her terms.

“Most of it was set up over apps — you know, Craigslist, Her, Tinder. I identify as bisexual though I prefer the ladies. A lot of what I got was straight girls in relationships looking for a threesomes. For some reason that felt icky so I only did it when I really needed money.”

Alaska nodded. She tried to picture her skull encased in an old fashioned bank vault. What was going through her mind right now — she couldn’t have Katya listening in.

She wanted to think of herself as a liberal, sex positive girl who lived beyond the constraint of labels and misogyny, but when Katya confessed to having done sex work… she couldn't help thinking…

“You’re grossed out, aren’t you?”

Alaska grunted in frustration. “Would you get out of my head?!” She winced. That sounded harsh. “I mean, please.”

Katya knitted her brows together. “I wasn’t. In your head, I mean.” She looked away. “But wow, I was kinda joking… do you really think that?”

Alaska saw Katya’s feathers ruffle, her wings puffing up, hurt. Looking up at Katya’s face, Alaska instantly regretted what she’d said and thought. Katya had the face of a young woman who had grown up fast, seen too much too early.

“Look,” Alaska grabbed Katya’s hand. The winged woman stared at her knees and gently held Alaska’s hand, waiting for her to explain herself.

“You know my damage,” Alaska began. “And the thing is, I’ve only ever been with _that one person_ before. She was my first. I was her first — not her only, but she was my only. I… that fucked me up. I… don’t have an easy time trusting people. And something about knowing that I’m — that you’ve had experience…” Katya started stroking Alaska’s hand with her thumb. “I feel like you’ll be comparing me to…”

“No,” said Katya softly. She raised her gaze to meet Alaska’s face. “Thank you for being honest with me but, that’s not how it works.”

Alaska swallowed and let out a humorless laugh. “Really? When we kiss you aren’t thinking about all the people who you kissed before and how I measure up?”

“No?” Katya shook her head. “That’s not what I’m thinking when I kiss you. At all.”

“Really?” Alaska sat back. “What are you thinking then?”

Katya stared at her, then started flapping-wheezing-silent-laughing. “You wanna know what I’m thinking? Here’s what I’m thinking.”

She quickly kissed Alaska before leaning back. “Mmm, lips.”

Alaska giggled.

Katya prodded Alaska’s thigh with her toes. “Wait, does that mean you compare me to Sh—“ she cleared her throat when Alaska winced at the name. “ _That person_ in your head, then?”

Alaska fidgeted uncomfortably.

“You do!” Katya gasped. “Oh my God.”

“It’s not like that!” Alaska defended. “It’s… it’s self checking.”

“Like the registers at Target?” asked Katya.

Alaska rubbed her forehead. “That’s self check- _outs_ , Kat.”

“Same thing,” Katya chuckled. “Isn’t it?”

Alaska took a breath. “It’s a way of combating the anxiety and overthinking. Like, I do compare you to _that other person_ , but when I do it’s ‘this is not like with Sh— _them_. This is safe, This feels good. I feel good and taken care of and comfortable with this person.’”

Katya touched her chest. “Awwwwe.”

Alaska blushed. “Right. So. There’s that.”

Katya wrapped her fingers around Alaska’s wrist. “‘Lask?”

Alaska looked at Katya. “Mhm?”

The girl with the soulful blue eyes brushed hair behind Alaska’s ear. “I very much want to kiss you right now, is that okay?”

Alaska’s pulse sped. “Yes.”

Katya reconnected their lips, leaning Alaska down into the couch once again. She broke to ask “and is this okay?”

Alaska swallowed and nodded. “Yes.”

Katya kept kissing her, and Alaska kept kissing back. This had been so much fun last night, but it had felt like she was careening toward an edge, headed somewhere she could never return from. Now it felt like warming up, getting ready for a marathon she was eager to run, and had forever to complete.

Katya sneaked her hands up Alaska’s sides, under her top. Alaska winced. Katya broke. “No?” she whispered.

Alaska shook her head and redirected Katya’s hands. “Yeah, no.”

Katya nodded and looked into Alaska’s eyes. Seeing that she was okay otherwise, she helped herself to resume open-mouthed kissing.

Alaska rubbed her thighs together slowly, squeezing her knees. She cupped the undersides of Katya’s boobs. “Okay?”

“Oh, _fuck_ yes.” Katya’s voice was low. It made Alaska thrum between her legs.

Alaska rubbed her hands across the other’s chest, across the muscles in her back, gently tugging the downy feathers between Katya’s shoulder blades. Katya sucked in sensual breaths whenever Alaska touched her wings. And she pushed her wings further into Alaska’s grasp.

Katya was panting — Alaska could feel Katya’s wetness leaking through her short shorts and onto Alaska’s thigh. Katya drew her fingers down the front of Alaska’s abdomen, to the side of Alaska’s navel, peeking under the waistband of her leggings. Alaska shivered.

Katya leaned her face over Alaska’s, platinum-stringy hair falling around the sides of their faces  like privacy curtains. It was just them. Katya held Alaska’s waistband between her fingers. “How’s that?”

Alaska swallowed hard. She was absolutely buzzing and about as wet as Katya, but… she pursed her lips.

“It’s too far too soon, isn’t it?” Katya pressed a kiss to the tip of Alaska’s nose and her chest swelled.

Wetness pricked at Alaska’s eyes. “I’m sorry.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

Katya kissed Alaska to shut her up. Once she was satisfied that she’d distracted Alaska, she pulled back only enough to breathe in her ear “Stop apologising.”

***

Jinkx had to trust that her wayfinder’s stone knew how to get her to the third story of the old parking garage through doors and stairwells. It was supposed to grab onto energy movements over time, but it really was a gamble. This thing had sent her to Sacramento once when she was trying to get to Seattle. Of course, Jerick got to say he told her so, and after that they used Google Maps when possible.

She crossed the actual underground parking garage as the glowing rock directed her until she came to a heavy metal door that you were supposed to have a keycard or a code to get through. She paused in front of the keypad long enough for Jerick to trot up next to her. Closing one hand over her pendant, Jinkx opened her other hand over the keypad and closed her eyes. Touching her center was as easy as snapping her fingers after over a decade of practice, and for things like this, she was pretty confident she could do what she needed without much risk. She let her magical core reach out to her hand and whispered “Access.” _Let me in,_ she thought.

The keypad chimed happily and Jinkx let out a sigh of relief, just out of habit. She released her pendant and sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the goddess before taking on the claustrophobic stairwell.

Jerick bounded his way up like the 6 inch stairs were nothing. Jinkx rolled her eyes, _not shady now, are you_?

“Ground floor!” called Jerick from above, marking his progress.

“Cool,” huffed Jinkx, already out of breath halfway up one flight of stairs.

“Not this one! This one’s second!”

Jinkx passed the first door. “There’s probably a plaque, y'know? Saying what floor you’re on. I could have just, read the plaque.”

“Third!” Jerick shouted, the sound reverberating off the cinder block walls of the cramped stairwell.

Jinkx’ lungs were burning by the time she caught up with her twin who was also a cat. She felt her cheeks burning and knew her hair was tragic. Stowing the wayfinders stone, she pulled her compact out of her bag. Opening it, she took in the damage briefly before focusing the window on her eye makeup. Casting charms on yourself through a mirror was trickier than something in a witches direct line of vision. Speaking to her smudged eye makeup, she willed “Restore.”

She blinked and her eyes were completely clean of product. “Not what I meant, mirror.”

Jerick’s tail flicked mischievously. He licked his paw. “I don’t think it’s the mirror that’s the problem.”

Jinkx snapped her compact closed and tossed it back into her bag. She almost spat at Jerick to shut up, but the last time she’d done that his mouth ended up sealed shut. While she enjoyed the silence that followed, it did occur to her in a panic that he would starve to death if she didn’t un-jinx him.

“Okay,” Jinkx said to herself, swiping her hair behind her shoulders. “How should I go about this -- impressive magician? Penitent witch?” Her fingers ghosted over the white bone ring on her left hand. Thinking back to when it had been gifted to her made Jinkx regret missing the last council meeting. If only Jerick had woken her up.

“What, are you waiting ‘til Samhain to charge in there?” said Jerick.

Jinkx whipped off the ring, letting it lengthen and transform into a sleek, threatening staff, the kind of tool used by a bearded wizard in a Hollywood movie to beat back the forces of darkness. Thankfully for Jinkx, and for everyone surrounding her, this staff essentially existed to look threatening.

She cranked the doorknob and hauled the heavy metal door open, charging in staff-first.

***

They heard the door open and Katya reached up a hand. “Hi Shea, Hi Sasha, welcome home!” she offered, barely pausing from where she was nibbling Alaska’s ear.

A throat cleared, and it didn’t sound anything like Shea’s scratchy voice or Sasha’s soothing baritone.

Katya pulled off. She was still kneeling over Alaska, who lifted herself onto her elbows to get a look at their visitor.

In the doorway stood a girl, pale skin, red hair, wielding a bigass white stick that set fear into both Alaska and Katya’s senses. From behind the intruder trotted a brown cat, which regarded the girls on the couch with an eerily human stare.

Katya’s wings immediately fluffed up; Alaska’s tail stiffened. Katya stood up on the cushions before hopping over the back of the couch, taking up a stance in the middle of the room. She crossed her hands over her chest and tilted her hips. Her tits were out, and while she wasn’t in the least embarrassed, she did catch the redhead’s eyes flicker to her chest. Immediately Katya felt her confidence rise. Weakness.

Katya squinted down her nose at the girl fifteen feet away. “Who are you?” She felt her words crackle at the edges. Some of the waxpaper sketches on the wall shuddered in an unseen wind.

Alaska slowly made her way over to Katya’s side, her imp tail released from her leggings and curling protectively in front of her.

The girl with the red hair struck the base of her staff against the concrete floor. “I am Jinkx, Gray Lady and High Priestess of the Pacific Region.”

Katya squinted and looked at Alaska, whose face was colored with concentration.

“Hey, I know that voice,” remarked Alaska. Turning to Jinkx, lady of whatever, Alaska looked her over more carefully. “Yeah, aren’t you in Theater Performance with Professor Peaches?”

Jinkx’ face fell, and she glanced more knowingly between Katya and Alaska. The threat of her wore off as she recognized her peers. Katya stayed alert.

“Oh my God, Alaska,” gasped Jinkx. Her staff shortened, folding in on itself until it was barely a trinket in her hand. A ring, Alaska realized, as she slipped it onto her left hand. Jinkx started to cross the room. “I was wondering what had happened to you-- you never miss class and I thought you must be dying or something!”

Alaska put her fists on her hips. “Yeah, no, not dying unfortunately,” she said. “Just growing antlers is all.”

Jinkx’ mouth pulled to one side and she looked at Katya, puzzling where she knew this blonde girl from. Enlightenment struck, and Jinkx snapped her fingers. “Film Theory!”

Slowly, recognition spread across Katya’s face. Her wings lowered. “Oh. My. God. I _knew_ you looked especially disgusted at _Blair Witch Project_ ! No fucking wonder, you’re an _actual_ witch!” Katya gasped. “Is that offensive? It seems offensive. Oh my God, what? Hold on.”

Jinkx held up her hands to calm the conversation. “We have a lot to discuss. Would it be okay if myself and Jerick made ourselves comfortable?”

Katya blinked. “What? Sure. Of course.”

Jinkx smiled. “Thank you. Jer! You wanna come over?”

From the opposite side of the studio, a voice croaked sinfully, “Love to, but I can’t exactly stand right now.”

Alaska and Katya were identical panes of what-the-fuck when they met each other's gaze. Alaska held up her pointer finger in the direction of the cat in the corner. “That just talked.”

“Oh don’t mind Jerick,” said Jinkx, pulling out a seat at the elevated kitchen table. “He’s a perv, but he’s mostly harmless. But be warned: he isn’t declawed.”

“You… what?” breathed Katya, drawing nearer the talking cat without consciously trying.

Brown eyes stared right up at her, stopping just shy of her face. “Excellent pair, I must say,” he purred.

Katya followed the cats gaze down and jumped back about five feet, shrieking in disgust.

“Calm down, Katya,” Jinkx insisted. “A talking cat isn’t the weirdest thing you’re gonna find out about today.”


	6. "New Adventure, Right?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sorceress and her talking cat companion have some explaining to do. Once they do, Alaska and Katya have new hope, new accessories, and a choice to make.

Keeping her gaze locked on the pervy talking cat, Katya walked back to the couch to grab her discarded top. Alaska followed her over, wordlessly volunteering to help with the ties.

“You think we can trust her?” breathed the angel.

Alaska glanced back to the ginger at the table. She twirled some of her wavy red hair around a ringed finger and talked to her brother, the cat, in a voice that reminded Alaska of the noise of rubbing a balloon.

Her fingers fixed the first of the three cotton ties on Katya’s makeshift halter top. “I don’t know. But something tells me we’re not going to run into many other people who would know what’s going on with us.”

Katya swallowed and pursed her lips. “You’re probably right.” Her feathers still stuck with tension. Alaska had to gently lift the dove wings to get at the other tie.

Once Katya was again suitable to be shown on prime time television, and a double-knot ensured Jerick wouldn’t be getting any more glimpses of her goodies, Alaska placed a reassuring hand on the angel’s waist. Some small part of her smiled. It hadn’t been that long since Katya had been comforting _her_.

Katya turned her head slightly. Her hand covered Alaska’s on her waist. Something whispered inside Alaska’s mind; she knew exactly what the other needed. Alaska placed her free hand on Katya’s bare shoulder and leaned forward. Katya met her for a tender kiss. Alaska gave Katya’s waist a little squeeze. She felt some of the tension melt from her angel, and when they pulled apart, they were ready for whatever the witch could throw at them.

When Alaska and Katya took places at the table opposite Jinkx, their classmate had her lips pressed into a thin line, her chin resting on top of interlocked fingers. “I think we got off on the wrong foot,” she said.

Looking closer, Alaska realized Jinkx’ fingers were covered in rings -- cheap-looking, mostly homemade stuff. Plus, the sorceress must have been wearing thirteen bracelets on each arm.

“In my defense,” she continued. “I thought I had rogue heavenly powers on my hands.” Jinkx fiddled with one of her rings. “And those bitches never take me seriously.”

Alaska couldn’t help staring at the woman who had burst into Sasha’s studio not ten minutes ago, staff blazing and looking like Little Orphan Gandalf.

The horned girl was unable to form a sentence, so Katya took over. “You should probably start talking now,” she said, slowly stretching out her wings for effect.

Jinkx swallowed and scanned the room for something to look at that wasn’t the two displeased women across from her. “Where do I even start, Jerick?”

The talking cat rolled out on some newspapers. “Why don’t you start with how you fucked up the sabbat?”

“How you…” Alaska’s brows knitted in confusion.

Jinkx rubbed her eyes and inhaled. “Okay. Let me guess. Your magic characteristics showed up a few days ago? In the morning? The morning of the 22nd?”

Alaska and Katya exchanged glances. “There was last night, and the night before,” Alaska recounted softly. “So yeah, three days ago.”

Jinkx nodded and knitted her fingers together in front of her face. “Yeah. So. Uh…” Her voice changed and she managed to look between both Katya and Alaska. “What do you know about witchcraft? Or the occult or wicca in general?”

Again Alaska’s mouth remained silently open. She looked to Katya, who shrugged. “Wicca, love the earth, woman power, something about orgies in May?”

Katya was surprised when Jinkx actually laughed at  her joke. “Actually,” she said, pulling a ring from one of her fingers. She held it up so the pair could see the handpainted ceramic sunflower decor. “You’re not that far off. I made this ring with another witch for this past Ostara.” She looked up. “No bells on Ostara, huh?”

Alaska shook her head. Katya blinked. “Nope.”

Jinkx leaned back in her chair and set the sunflower ring down on the table in front of her. Slowly, she started pulling off more of her rings, a couple of bracelets, and what looked like a bundle of twigs and leaves, fastened with an orange ribbon, from the pocket of her fancy cardigan. “So Christians, Jews, Muslims, they have holy days, right, that’s literally where ‘holiday’ comes from. Following me?”

After two heads nodded in synchrony, she continued. “So, those who follow Old Tyme Religion, and by that I mean pre-rampant-spread-of-Christianity-and-Islam, we have holy days too. Some of them line up with Christian holidays because they stole a shit ton of our traditions and rebranded them to coax us ‘heathens’ toward baby Jesus. Wanted to get us away from the worship of gods and goddesses that had originated the traditions in the first place. Christmas being in the winter was to line up with Yule, which is ours.”

“ _That_ , I knew,” said Katya, glowing a little with pride for having known the right answer. Just like in class.

Jinkx continued. “Right. And coloring eggs for Easter is directly lined up with our sabbat -- which is just what we call the holy days, like the Jewish sabbath. But the egg-coloring is derived from our activity to celebrate Ostara, or, Estar.” She side-eyed Alaska and Katya. “Any idea why it’s called ‘Easter’ now?”

Alaska recognized the familiar brain-expanding feeling and sighed. _Fuck I miss class_. She looked up at Jinkx. “What does Easter have to do with us?”

“Good question.” Jinkx held up the bundle of twig and herbs and handed it to Alaska. She brought it to her face and took a sniff. It smelled like autumn. She passed it to Katya as Jinkx explained further. “So, one of those holidays is at the end of September, the second of three harvest festivals. It’s over the equinox, so whenever the autumnal equinox is that year, that’s when we celebrate. Following?”

Katya nodded. “Following.”

“So,” Jinkx sighed. “This sabbat is all about balance and looking back on what you’re reaping from the previous year -- because harvest -- and… I may have tried to cast a protection spell… as you do, because protective magic is boosted during Mabon, which is the name of this past sabbat -- anyway, what I’m trying to say is,” she paused, stress evident in her face.

Katya’s fists clenched. She considered just jumping into the witch’s mind if she didn’t start offering legitimate answers instead of giving pagan cultural lessons.

From the other side of the room, the talking cat spoke up. “She tried to do a magic but got distracted, thought of you, missed the mark, and now you two are X-men.”

“What.” Katya _willed_ Jinkx to look at her. “The fuck.”

The witch buried her face in her hands. “I wasn’t expecting -- I just, uuuugh.” She looked up at Katya and Alaska again. “I knocked myself out for the next day and a half after casting that spell, if that makes a difference.”

“It does not,” said Katya airily.

“Undo it,” said Alaska. Her brain rewound to the breakdown she’d had because of how her life had to change around this demon curse. Her jaw locked. She felt her tail fight for freedom beneath her thighs. Alaska’s glare bored into the witch’s brown doe eyes with needlelike force. “ _Undo it,_ ” she repeated.

Katya rested her hand on Alaska’s thigh. She didn’t shake the hand off, but didn’t welcome it either.

Jinkx shrank away from the demon girl’s glare. “I can’t.” Her voice was so soft, the other girls at the table nearly didn’t hear.

Alaska pulled to her feet, towering above the seated witch with her full height plus horns. She placed her hands on either side of the table, feeling Katya rise and stand behind her. “You wanna say that again?” she hissed. “Because I know I didn’t just hear what I thought I heard.”

“Lask,” Katya whispered.

Alaska ignored her, feeling resentment broil and rise inside of her.

Jinkx scooted her chair back an inch. Her face tried to project strength, but her frightened body language gave her away. She cleared her throat. “I _said_ ,” her voice wavered. She cleared her throat again. “I can’t _yet.”_

Alaska’s fists remained clenched. Katya’s hand was now on her back -- steadying her or keeping her from vaulting the table and tackling Jinkx to the floor, she didn’t know. For now, Alaska didn’t have any plans to take this to the cement, but so help her she would get this horn-and-tail thing reversed.

Jinkx raised her palms and spoke. “I don’t know how to reverse the spell because I don’t know exactly what I did to make _this_ ,” she waved toward Alaska’s horns “happen. But I will find out, I swear. Actually…”

Jinkx stood out of her chair and took a knee, holding one fist over the right side of her chest. She stared at the floor. “I, Jinkx, last remaining of the Monsoon Clan--”

“Hey!” protested Jerick, taking a break from licking himself to speak.

“You don’t count and you know it,” his sister brushed him off. “I, Jinkx of the Monsoon Clan, descended from a line of pure witches ten generations long, swear by the Goddess herself, that I will make this right by you, both of you, whom I have unknowingly harmed with my magic.”

Katya could have sworn the air in the room… glittered? A not-there shift took place, and her mouth somehow tasted like tea for about thirty seconds.

Jinkx rose and looked to Alaska again. “Until such a time I can reverse the effects of what I have done, I offer you some semblance of normalcy, which, as someone born into the human world, you deserve.” On the table, she picked out a tarnished-looking ring with a blue stone inlaid and handed it to Alaska. “Slip that on. Is there a mirror anywhere in this place?”

Katya nodded and went to fetch a hand mirror from one of Sasha’s supply tables. Alaska slid the old ring onto her wedding finger. In the changing light, she realized the blue stone had symbols etched into it, and pieces of gold inside the grooves reflected light against the dark backdrop, looking like she had a piece of space itself on her finger.

Katya brought the mirror over to Alaska while Jinkx thumbed around in her pockets and handbag for something. Alaska took one look at her reflection in the mirror and yelped.

“What? What is it?” asked Katya, setting the mirror down on the table.

Alaska immediately grabbed it up and stared at her reflection with wide eyes. “How?!”

Alaska reached up to grab at where her horns had been, and found herself disappointed when she still felt the bricklike texture beneath her hand, even though she couldn’t see the blasphemous structure anymore.

“How _what_?” asked Katya, thoroughly confused. “What are you seeing, Alaska? What’s so impressive?”

“Concealment charm,” explained Jinkx. “Makes it easier for magical beings to blend in.” Frustrated, the witch searched through her jewelry again. “I only have the one charm on me though,” she sighed. “So I don’t know how we’re gonna get Katya out of here.” Jinkx’ face suddenly lit up and she turned toward Jerick in the corner.

“What?” asked the cat.

“Katya,” said Jinkx, a sly smile playing at her lips. “Any chance you’re allergic to cats?”

“Nope.”

“ _Great.”_ Jinkx took long strides over to where Jerick was lying.

He jumped to his feet and scampered to one side. “Hey hey now,” he tried.

“I need the collar, bro,” sang Jinkx. “Need we remember you’re an ambush predator? I’ll outlast you with my opposable thumbs!”

Jerick bolted, turning a figure 8 around Katya’s heels. The blonde angel tried to bend down and snatch the cat, but his furry body was too quick. Jerick darted away at an angle. Alaska reached down, and managed to snag the last bit of his tail before it slipped through her fingers.

“Okay,” said Jinkx, determined. She threw her hair back and locked her hand around a big green chunk of rock attached to a chain around her neck, then she fastened her eyes on her brother. “ _Impede!”_

Again the air crackled with energy. This time, Katya felt like she grasped the feel of it. A wave rippled through the studio. It didn’t affect the paintings on the wall, but some newspapers on the floor stirred. And it definitely came from Jinkx.

A strained grunt sounded from the floor, and Katya’s gaze shifted to the now stiff and motionless form of Jerick the cat. He wasn’t dead -- but it was like he’d been frozen in time. Katya looked to Alaska for confirmation but received only a small shrug in response before the she returned to marveling at her reflection. Katya sighed. “I wish I could be as impressed, but I still see horns.”

“Oh, of course you do.” Jinkx strode over to Jerick’s stiff body and went to work unfastening his collar. “The charms don’t work on other magical beings.”

Alaska looked over confused at Jinkx. “Then how do you know it works?”

“I’m not a magical being.” Jinkx hissed in victory, pulling a small, well-loved blue fabric belt from Jerick’s neck.

“Ehkay,” said Jerick behind immobile teeth. “Ret -e go -ow.”

Jinkx snapped her fingers and the cat sprung into motion again, trotting a sobering lap around the studio.

Alaska blinked slowly and pointed at the space the cat had recently occupied. “You say you’re _not_ a magical being?”

The witch dusted off stray cat hairs from the collar and expanded it. “Technically, witches are human. Not a _magical being_ so much as a _natural_ being who _happens_ to have magic.”

“Oh, forgive me.” Alaska rolled her eyes.

Jinkx approached Katya and held out the collar. “It has Jer’s name on it, so,” she shrugged.

Katya took the collar and examined its maximum length. She presented it to Alaska. “D’you think this would fit around my neck?”

Alaska hesitated a moment in surprise. Then a sly smile pulled her lips to the side and she reached out her hand. “We can certainly find out,” she purred.

Katya bit her lip and gave a side-eye to Jinkx, who was bantering with the cat, not even paying attention. She looked back at Alaska. Something passed between their eyes. Katya turned around and lifted her hair, exposing her neck.

“There’s no way it’s gonna fit.” Alaska’s hot breath stirred the baby hairs at the nape of Katya’s neck, prompting goosebumps to rise in response.

Katya folded her arms protectively over her chest, reminded of just how thin the sheet of cotton was.

The fabric collar pressed against her windpipe. Katya coughed.

“Sorry,” whispered Alaska. More goosebumps.

“It’s fine,”Katya hummed.

Alaska pulled the collar closer around the angel’s neck. The restriction caused a sinful reaction in Katya. Her bottom lip quivered, her eyes fluttered closed, her head fell back and her hips bucked backward. A hum escaped her throat. The world blotted out until it was only her, the collar, Alaska’s breath and hands.

Suddenly, the collar let out a snap and some of the tension released. Katya’s eyes snapped open, the studio suddenly very bright, and turned toward Alaska.

The girl whose demon horns Katya could see, even despite the charm she wore, grabbed the mirror she had been obsessed with, and handed it to Katya.

Immediately upon looking in the mirror, Katya didn’t notice a considerable change. Her reflected lips pouted. “I don’t think it worked.”

Alaska strolled up behind Katya and rested a hand on the other’s hip. “I can’t tell. You still look like an angel to me.”

Katya pointed a finger at her mouth and pretended to hurl. The action strained her against the collar, which simultaneously choked and aroused her.

Alaska laughed and called Jinkx over. “How’s it working?”

Jinkx strolled over, her eyes scanning the air around Katya’s head and shoulders, looking for wings but not seeming to find any. “Concealment charm is concealing,” the witch noted before her eyes caught on Katya’s new choker necklace. “How’d you get it around your neck? Doesn’t that hurt?”

Katya pressed her lips into a hard line. Next to her, Alaska turned away from Jinkx to hide just how much she was losing her shit.

Just then, the heavy metal door into the stairwell opened. Shea and Sasha laughed about some shared joke as they stepped inside. Shea was the first to notice that they had company, and sent an elbow gently between her girlfriend’s ribs.

“Ow,” said Sasha, looking pointedly at Shea. The dancer motioned to the middle of the studio, and the many levels of strange there was to see.

Sasha scoffed in surprise. “Katya -- where'd your wings go? And Alaska--”

Alaska straightened up and flipped hair over her shoulder. “Sash, Shea, meet Jinkx and her brother Jerick.”

Shea waved at Jinkx and scanned the room for someone who looked related to the red-headed hippie. “Hello?”

A male voice spoke close by. “Hey.”

Shea squeezed her eyes shut, then back open again, looking for the missing guest.

“Down here.”

Shea looked down. At her feet sat a white, brown, and orange calico with brown eyes. Not computing, Shea continued to scan the ground around the studio for the source of the voice.

“It’s the cat,” said Katya.

“What?”

The angel with now-invisible wings pointed. “Jerick is the cat.”

Shea raised an eyebrow but looked down again. The cat had shuffled closer and was now staring up at her. “Hi there.”

“The cat talks,” stated Sasha, as if the statement took every ounce of energy out of her. “Of course the cat talks.”

Shea scrubbed one hand over her eyes and took in a deep breath. “Talking cat. Right.” Shea dropped her duffel bag on the floor. Sasha set down her art bag next to it and the two women walked silently toward the plywood stairs that led to the loft.

“I-- I’m Jinkx.” The witch held a hand out to the two humans. “I wanna let you two have your space back, so we’ll head out in a minute here.”

“Who all’s ‘we’?” asked Jerick, his tail flicking back and forth mischievously.

“Oh yeah,” breathed Jinkx, letting out a nervous chuckle. “I forgot to mention, it’ll be easier to figure out how I can fix you two for good if I have you at my disposal. So I was thinking…” her voice trailed off.

“Thinking what?” prompted Alaska.

Katya saw a flash of an image in her mind: an old house, surrounded by woods. The mint taste was back for a few seconds, and gone again.

“I have a house,” said Jinkx. “In the woods, about a 45 minute drive away, depending on traffic. It’s been in the family for generations. I’d love to sell it but… too much baggage. And I think my ancestors may actually come and haunt me if I don’t keep up the home. But what I’m saying is--”

“You want us to move in with you,” said Katya.

“It’s an awkward question.” Jinkx sighed in relief. “But you’d get free room and board and I cook -- I’m pretty good actually -- and it wouldn’t be for forever, just so long as it takes me to undo what I did.”

“Fair warning.” Jerick licked his paw. “She’s been trying to un-catify me for two and a half years.”

Alaska shrunk back a little.

Jinkx grew red. “I have more ways of hiding your special… features, from the general public, since you look generally human. I can research more charms and call in some favors -- Alaska, I know how important school is for you, you can go back I swear. Two more days max.”

Alaska looked up, hope swelling in her chest. “I actually don’t have class again until Monday.”

Jinkx beamed. “That’s great, gives me plenty of time! You can go back next week, say you had Norovirus or something.” She turned to Katya. “And I don’t remember much about your personal life, Kat, but you can get your life back, too!”

Katya felt like she’d been pricked in the chest, reminded of how little she’d lost since getting the Wings upgrade. She nodded silently.

Sasha, who had hung back at the bottom of the stairs to keep listening, spoke up. “Not saying I want you guys out or anything -- because you’re welcome anytime, but if you’re being offered a room, or even an actual bed, that’s more than I can give you. I think you should go.”

“Oh yeah,” said Jinkx. “Spare bedroom has a queen-size mattress. It’s enchanted horsehair. Nobody died on it to my knowledge, but that room _is_ covered in cat fur.”

“Hey! You’re giving them my room?” Jerick whined. “I love that bed!”

“You’re a cat, Jer. You do not need to be sleeping on a queen.”

Jerick dramatically flipped onto his back and writhed around, howling. “It’s like sleeping on a cloud!”

“I know.”

He rolled onto his stomach and looked up at his sister with pouting eyes. “It’s not just horsehair, it’s hair from _magical_ horses! I’ve never had a bad dream on that bed!”

Alaska swallowed. _No nightmares? Ever?_

“Okay, okay,” said Katya. “You don’t gotta sell it anymore, you two. ‘Lask, how you feeling?”

Alaska shrugged and held up her hands. “I’m down for tonight, at the very least,” she said.

Jinkx beamed. “Really?”

Alaska took a few steps to stand on Katya’s right side and looped her arm around her shoulders. Stray feathers tickled her skin. “I’m down exclusively to test out this nightmare-proof bed.”

“Same,” Katya’s fingers quickly pinched Alaska’s buttcheek. The demon flinched and locked eyes with Katya, who grinned sexily. “I hear that horsehair beds are very… _springy.”_

Alaska let out a cackle, then followed it up with fake coughs.

Jinkx and Jerick shared a look. Over their telepathic connection Jinkx wondered, _Should we tell them about Aunt Eileen?_

Jerick watched the two blonde girls flirt with each other. _They’ll find out soon enough._

“Hey Jerick,” came Alaska’s voice. She had one finger slipped between Katya’s skin and the blue fabric collar. The woman wearing the choker had her eyes closed and a lovesick grin on her face. “What did you use the concealment charm for?”

“Catcalling.”

Alaska rolled her eyes. “Ha-ha.”

“No, really,” said the cat. “I check out nice asses and tits, yell things at ‘em. All they hear is ‘meow.’”

“Gross,” stated Alaska.

Jerick’s eyes took on a foxy shine. “Everybody loves kitty.”

_____

Shea and Sasha walked the angel, demon, witch, and talking cat down to the garage level.

“Which one’s yours?” asked Shea.

Jinkx pressed a button on her keyfob. A little green car chirped to life.

Sasha grabbed Katya by the arm and pulled her in for a hug. “I’m so happy we got in touch again,” she said, her earthy baritone easing Katya’s stress.

“I am too,” sighed Katya. She turned to address the other human. “And Shea, seriously, thank you for pushing me to fly yesterday. I wouldn’t have left the studio without you.”

Shea smiled. “Aw, it’s no prob, Wings.”

Katya held out her arms. “You know what needs to happen. Bring it in.”

Shea squeezed Katya with her strong arms and managed to lift her off the ground. “Woah!” gasped Katya, kicking her feet in the air. Her wings struggled, but Shea only took a couple steps back to steady herself.

“Say I’m amazing!”

“You are,” cackled Katya. Shea let her grasp loosen and the angel was allowed to breathe. Katya met her eyes. “Didn’t need to hold me captive for me to say that.”

Standing before Sasha, Alaska blushed timidly. “I haven’t showered in like, days, or brushed my teeth, but like--”

The artist grabbed her and enveloped her into a huge hug.

Alaska searched for words but came up with nothing. When Sasha finally let her go, she was about to say ‘Call me’ before remembering she forgot to bring her charger. “Ah, if nothing else,” said Alaska at last. “See you when I kick your ass at the fall fashion show.”

Sasha’s mouth pulled into the widest smile. “We’ll see about that.”

“Alright, well…” Katya’s voice trailed off once she and Alaska had shared goodbyes with Sasha and Shea. “That’s…” she looked to Alaska and back at Jinkx’ car. “That’s us off, I guess.”

Alaska pulled the car door open and set one foot inside. “Thanks again,” she told Sasha and Shea. “For everything.”

Katya nodded. Alaska crouched herself inside the backseat of Jinkx’ Saturn and Katya followed. Jinkx revved the engine and started pulling out of her parking spot.

Shea wrapped her arms around Sasha’s waist and tucked her chin into her girlfriend’s shoulder. “Bye!” Sasha called. “Be safe!” added Shea.

In the backseat of the Saturn, Katya squirmed, trying to get comfortable. Alaska’s hand rested on her knee. Katya let herself breathe deeply and she intertwined her fingers with Alaska’s. She leaned her head to the side, to rest her head against Alaska’s. She felt a horn against her forehead. She didn’t mind.

Jinkx pulled out of the underground parking garage and into the sunlight. Alaska placed a hand under Katya’s chin and turned her own head. She brushed hair from the angel’s face. “New adventure, right?” she breathed.

Katya smiled slightly and nodded. “New adventure. Wacky hijinks to ensue.”

Alaska sighed. “Hot, homemade meals.”

“Free room and board,” Katya recalled. “Including an _actual_ bed.”

“A _nightmare-proof_ bed nonetheless.” Alaska twirled hair around her finger. “We’re really gonna be okay, aren’t we?”

Katya didn’t have to pry into Alaska’s mind to sense she was thinking about the thought spirals Katya had fought off this morning. “So long as we have each others backs,” said Katya.

 _It’s weird_ , thought Alaska. _That I’ve really only known her a couple of days at best, but...her hand on my waist, my hand on her thigh… right here feels like home._

Katya looked deep into Alaska’s eyes and leaned her face closer. Alaska placed a hand on Katya’s shoulder and closed the distance between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me? Finish something? RARE!  
> The next installment if i ever get to it will be called The Witch's House. I have a ton of plans for where our faves will go. It involves a switchup of formula and structure, and we'll meet a ton of fun new characters! This is one of my favorite fics to return to just because of how fun it is. I think all fic authors needs a The Good Place of projects. this is mine. thanks to those of you who read it.


End file.
